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HISTORY 



OF 



OREGON AND CALIPOENIA 



11 



I 



u 



THE 



HISTORY 



OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, 



AND THE 



OTHER TERRITORIES 



NOETH-WEST COAST OF NOETH AMERICA; 



ACCOMPANIED BY A 



GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW AND MAP 

OP THOSE COUNTRIES, 

AND A NUMBER OF DOCUMENTS AS 

PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY. 



ROBERT GREENHOW, 

TRANSLATOR AND LIBRARIAN TO THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES . AUTHOR 

OF A MEMOIR, HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL, ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA 

PUBLISHED IN 1840. BT DIRECTION OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



" THE POSSIBLE DESTINY OP THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AS A NATION OP 
A HUNDRED MILLIONS OF FREEMEN, STRETCHING FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE 
PACIFIC, LIATING UNDER THE LAWS OP ALFRED, AND SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE 
OP SHAKSPEARE AND MILTON, IS AN AUGUST CONCEPTION." 

COLERIDQE'S TABLE TALK. 



SECOND EDITION, 

REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED. 

BOSTON: 

CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN. 
LONDON: JOHN MURRAY. 

1845. 



psso 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, 

By Robert Greenhow, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Columbia. 



By transfer 
5 JelflO? 



BOSTON : 

PRINTED BY FREEMAN AND BOLLES, 

WASHINGTON BTHEET. 



TO 



MY VENERABLE AND EVER KIND FRIEND, 



MAJOR-GENERAL MORGAN LEWIS, 



I.ATE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, 



AS A MARK OF RESPECT AND GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE. 



ROBERT GREENHOW. 



PREFACE. 



The following pages are devoted, principally, to the de- 
scription and history of the portion of North America bor- 
dering on the Pacific Ocean, between the 40th and the 54th 
parallels of latitude, which is traversed and in a great meas- 
ure drained, by the River Columbia, and to which the name 
of OREGON is now usually applied. It has, however, been 
found necessary, for the objects of the work, to bestow 
almost equal attention on the regions embraced under the 
general appellation of California, extending southward 
from the Columbia countries, to the arm of the Pacific, 
called the Californian Gulf; and also to take into consid- 
eration the coasts and islands north and north-west of those 
countries, as far as the Arctic Sea. 

The vast division of America, comprehending these ter- 
ritories, remains, with the exception of a few isolated spots 
on the coasts and on the margins of the larger streams, 
uncultivated and inhabited only by tribes of wandering sav- 
ages. Its shores and some of its rivers have been examined 
with care, and their course may be found delineated with 
considerable minuteness on maps. Of its interior regions, 
some have never been explored, and are indeed apparently 
impenetrable by man ; others, which oflfer fewer obstacles 
to the traveller, are only known through the vague and im- 
perfect accounts of traders or missionaries ; and in those 
which have been the most frequented by civilized persons, 
much remains to be eflfected by the aid of scientific obser- 
vations, in order to obtain satisfactory ideas of their geog- 
raphy and physical characteristics. 



IV PREFACE. 

These territories, unoccupied, partially explored, and re- 
mote from all civilized countries, nevertheless present much 
that is interesting in their political history, as well as in 
their natural conformation and productions ; and events are 
now in progress which seem calculated, ere long, to attract 
towards them the views of the governments and people of 
many powerful nations. 

Every pajl of this division of America is in fact claimed 
by some civilized state as its exclusive property, in virtue 
either of discoveries or settlements made by its citizens or 
subjects, or of transfer or inheritance from some other state 
claiming on similar grounds, or of contiguity to its own ac- 
knowledged territories. On these points, the principles of 
national law are by no means clearly defined ; nor is it easy 
to apply such as are most generally admitted, to particular 
cases ; nor are governments ordinarily found ready to relin- 
quish claims merely because they prove to be unfounded, 
agreeably to such principles : and disputes have in conse- 
quence arisen between different nations asserting the right of 
possession to the same portion of Western America, which 
have more than once threatened to disturb the peace of the 
world. Attempts have been made to settle the questions at 
issue by negotiation ; and certain lines of boundary have 
been agreed on by treaties between one and another of the 
claimant powers : but the arrangements thus made, can 
scarcely in any instance be considered definitive, as they 
have not received, and will probably never receive, the as- 
sent of the other parties interested. 

In the mean time these territories are daily becoming 
more important from the advancement of the population 
of adjoining countries towards them, and from the con- 
stant increase of the trade and navigation of several of the 
claimant powers in the Pacific, which would render the un- 
disputed possession of establishments on the coasts of that 
Ocean most desirable for each. The difficulty of effecting 
an amicable partition of tlio territories thus becomes dailv 



PREFACE. V 

greater, and more urgent therefore is the necessity of en- 
deavoring to attain that end without delay. 

It was principally with the object of showing the nature, 
origin, and extent of these various claims, that the author 
of the following pages composed his " Memoir, Historical 
and Political, on the North-West Coasts of North America 
and the adjacent Territories,"* which was published by 
order of the Senate of the United States in 1 840. He there 
endeavored to present a complete, clear and impartial view 
of all the discoveries and settlements, made or attempted, 
in those countries by civilized nations, and of all the dis- 
putes, negotiations and conventions, between different gov- 
ernments with respect to them, from the period when they 
were first visited by Europeans ; founding his statements, 
as much as possible, upon original authorities. That Me- 
moir is the only work hitherto published, approaching in its 
character to a history of the western portion of North 
America. The History of California,! printed at Madrid, 
in 1758, is devoted almost exclusively to descriptions of the 
Californian Peninsula, and to accounts of the missionary 
labors of the Jesuits, in that desolate region. The Intro- 
duction to the Journal of Marchand's Voyage, J which ap- 
peared in 1799, and the Introduction to the Journal of 
Galiano and Valdes,§ published in 1802, are confined to 
the discoveries of European navigators on the North Pacific 
coasts of America, before 1793; upon which so many de- 
tails have been made known, since the appearance of those 
works, that they are now entirely obsolete, and scarcely one 
of their paragraphs can be cited as correct. The Journals 
of Cook, La Perouse, Vancouver, Mackenzie, Krusenstern, 

* Extract from the Journal of the Senate of the United States. — " Monday, Feb. 
10, 1840. On motion, by Mr. Linn — Ordered, That a History of the North-West 
Coast of Nortli America and the adjacent Territories, communicated to the Select 
Committee on the Oregon Territory, be printed, with the accompanying map: and 
two thousand five hundred copies, in addition to the usual number, be printed for 
the use of the Senate." 

t See page 105. f See page '223. § See page 241. 

B 



Vi PREFACE. 

Lewis and Clarke, Kotzebue, Beechey, and Belcher, all 
contain important information as to the geography of the 
countries under consideration ; but as regards the events, 
which lie within the province of the historian, we have only 
the accounts of the Astoria enterprise, by Franchere, Cox, 
and Irving, all interesting, yet all limited to the occur- 
rences of three or four years. In the most popular histo- 
ries of other countries, and especially of Great Britain, the I 
circumstances relating to North-West America, are, in / 
every material point, misrepresented, either from neglect ) 
on the part of the authors, or from motives less excusable ; j 
and these histories, being universally read and received as ; 
true in England and in the United States, it is not astonish- 
ing, that erroneous ideas should be generally entertained 
by the people of both nations, upon points, which have 
been, and will continue to be, the subjects of discussion be- 
tween their governments. 

The Memoir, above mentioned, contains the outlines of 
the History now presented ; for which the same authorities, 
with many others since collected, consisting of private and 
official reports, letters and accounts, journals of expeditions 
by sea and land, and histories and state papers of various 
civilized nations, have been carefully examined and com- 
pared. Many errors of fact as well as of reasoning in the 
former work, have by this means been corrected ; and 
new circumstances have been brought to light, and ne^y 
arguments have been founded upon them, calculated per- 
haps materially to modify the views of those to whom the 
settlement of questions relative to North-West America 
may be hereafter entrusted. The principal object of the 
author has been to present the facts relative to the discov- 
ery and settlement of those countries, fairly ; and to investi- 
gate the claims which have been deduced from them, 
agreeably to the immutable principles of right, and the 
general understanding of civilized nations : and although 
he fully appreciates, and endeavors in all cases to place in 



PREFACE. Vll 

their proper light, the merits of his own countrymen, and 
the pretensions of his own government, he is not conscious 
that his desire to do so, has in any case led him to the 
commission of injustice towards other individuals, or na- 
tions, either by misstatements, or by suppressions of the 
truth. In order to unite the various parts into a regular 
narrative, and to preserve the remembrances of events 
which may be interesting, if not important at future peri- 
ods, he has introduced circumstances not immediately tend- 
ing to the attainment of the principal objects proposed ; but 
he has omitted nothing voluntarily, which if made known 
might have led to conclusions different from those here 
presented. Dates and references to authorities are gener- 
ally given, and always in cases where the circumstances 
related are new or material, or in which his accounts differ 
from those usually received ; and he has appended a num- 
ber of documents, extracts and original notices as Proofs 
and Illustrations of the history. Among 'tfie latter, are 
some valuable papers never before published, others not 
commonly known, and others again which the reader will 
probably desire frequently to consult, including all the trea- 
ties and conventions hitherto concluded between civilized 
nations, with respect to the countries forming the subjects 
of the history. 

In the geographical view he has collected, compared, 
and endeavored to arrange in order, what appeared to be 
the most exact and striking details, presented by the nu- 
merous travellers who have visited the countries in ques- 
tion. The map has been composed, as far as possible, 
from original authorities ; being intended for the illustration 
of the history, it necessarily embraces a very large portion 
of the surface of the globe, and will be found, perhaps, on 
the whole, more nearly correct than any other yet offered 
to the public. 

Washington, February, 1844. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



Circumstance s which it is unnecessary here to mention, 
prevented the pubhcation of the first edition of the work in 
the United States for more than a year, though it was issued 
in London, by Mr. John Murray, in June, 1844. Con- 
gress having by a recent Act most hberally ordered the 
purchase of fifteen hundred copies for the use of the gen- 
eral government, and for distribution among the States and 
in foreign countries, it has been necessary to print the new 
edition now offered ; in which errors have been corrected, 
many portions, including the whole of thejGfeoffraphy, and 
nearly the whole last chapter of the History, have been writ- 
ten anew, and an important document has been added to 
the Proofs and Illustrations. '^ 

The first edition, thus published in Europe, has not re- 
mained unnoticed : it has been reviewed generally with ex- 
treme severity of language, and with corresponding looseness 
of criticism, in London journals, and has afforded large 
materials for another work on the same subject, published 
in Paris, under the auspices of the French government. 
The author, however, observes with pleasure, that in all, 
even the best of these articles, the reviewers carefully ab- 
stain from the most important points touched in his work ; 
while all his admissions are cited as definitive. On the 
accounts and views here presented of Drake's Visit to the 
North-West Coast, of the pretended British Settlement at 
Nootka, of the discovery and survey of the Columbia river, 
of the character and duration of the Nootka Convention, of 
the alleged reservation on the part of the British govern- 



PREFACE. IX 

ment with regard to the restoration of Astoria — on these 
and other points, the London reviewers are silent, or care- 
fully omit to notice the principal arguments adduced by the 
author. The same observations apply to the answer writ- 
ten by Adam Thorn, Recorder of Rupert's Land, to the 
Memoir on the North-West Coast above mentioned, which 
was published at London, in 1843, by direction of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, and has been liberally distributed by 
its officers. The author, however, takes great pleasure in 
excepting the article on the same Memoir, in the British 
and Foreign Review, for January, 1844 ; which, though not 
less decided in its opposition to his views on the subject 
than the others, and far more able in every respect, is as 
remarkable for its fairness as for the courteous and concili- 
atory language employed. With regard to the contradiction 
in the Quarterly Review, (Sept., 1844, article on the Life 
of Lord Malmesbury,) of the account in page 1 1 1 of this 
history, of the engagement believed to have been made by 
the British government, in 1771, to withdraw its subjects 
from the Falkland Islands, the reader is simply referred to 
that page as amended, and to the authorities there cited. 

The Memoir " on the Discovery of the Mississippi, and 
on the South-western, Oregon and North-western bounda- 
ries of the United States, by Thomas Falconer," pub- 
lished at London, in October, 1844, contains many stric- 
tures on the present history, the justice of which the author 
denies in toto ; and he will, in defence, merely recommend 
to Mr. Falconer, the observance in future, of a few simple 
rules of historical composition, from which he has himself 
never deviated, and the propriety of which, he doubts not, 
will be immediately admitted. The first is — never to cije 
authorities at second hand, but a]\5[ays to examine the origi- 
nal book, document ox-map cited. Had Mr. Falconer, for 
instance, examined the treaty of 1803, by which France 
ceded Louisiana to the United States, he would not have 
found in it the passage describing the limits of Louisiana, 



PREFACE. 



which he has quoted (page 37,) as an important passage of 
that treaty from Bradford's History of the Federal Govern- 
ment ; nor would he have reprehended the author of this 
history, for failing to notice that passage, nor would he 
have founded upon its supposed stipulations, many pages 
of argument very logically drawn, but unfortunately vain, 
to prove the premeditated bad faith of the American gov- 
ernment. Had he in hke manner examined the collection 
of documents presented by the English and French com- 
missaries, appointed under the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, 
in 1748, to settle certain disputed questions of boundary in 
America, he would not have mistaken those commissaries, 
as he has, for the plenipotentiaries who signed the Treaty 
of Paris, in 1763 ; nor would he, on the faith of the inex- 
plicable assertions of M. Duflot de Mofras, have triumph- 
antly cited the map of Northern America, in the fourth 
volume of that Collection, as proving that Canada formerly 
extended to the Pacific, and that the Columbia river was dis- 
covered by French officers and traders, early in the last cen- 
tury. (See note at page 159 of this volume.) He should, 
also, in justice to those whose arguments he opposes, quote 
their expressions correctly ; that is, quote their words, and not 
omit important passages, which are indispensable to show 
their true meaning, as he has done, (in his pages 65 to 68,) 
with regard to the views of the rights derived from discovery 
and occupation, presented in pages 187 et seq. of this his- 
tory. Lastly, he should not attempt to controvert precise 
statements, expressed in exact terms, by vague and general 
assertions. Thus had he succeeded in proving that Can- 
ada extended to the Pacific — which he has most signally 
failed to do — he would still have been very far from re- 
deeming the pledge given in his page 85, " to demonstrate 
most distinctly, that there is not the slightest foundation," 
for the statement in page 276 of this history, (misquoted 
by him,) that at the beginning of the present century, 
" Louisiana stretched northward and north-westward to an 



PREFACE. XI 

undefined extent." The word undefined was there used to 
show that the boundaries of Louisiana, in those directions, 
had not been, as on the east, definitely settled by accord of 
the parties interested ; and this simple statement cannot be 
impugned, by the assertion that Louisiana was then bounded 
on the north by Canada, or the Hudson's Bay territories, the 
limits of which were equally undetermined. 

Mr. Falconer has displayed very httle fairness, in his 
remarks on the part of this history, relating to the discovery 
of the Columbia, in which he omits all notice of the prin- 
cipal arguments in favor of the Americans, and against the 
assertions of Vancouver and Broughton. With regard 
to the bitterness which the author is said to evince to- 
wards Vancouver, he confesses, that as an American, he 
felt deeply, but more in sorrow than in anger, the insults 
heaped upon his fellow-citizens, in the journal of that dis- 
tinguished navigator : he has, however, in no instance ex- 
pressed those feelings, without showing the circumstances 
which gave rise to them ; and he has produced distinct 
charges of invidiousness and want of good faith, on the 
part of Vancouver, drawn entirely from his Journal, which 
it will not be easy to controvert. It may be observed, 
however, that Mr. Falconer rather apologizes for his coun- 
tryman than defends him ; and that he does not seem dis- 
posed to admit, that Gray never saw the Columbia or was 
within five leagues of its entrance. 

With regard to the " Exploration of the territories of Ore- 
gon, Cahfornia, &c. by M. Duflot de Mofras," published re- 
cently at Paris, by order of the king, and under the auspices of 
Marshal Soult and M. Guizot, the author conceives himself 
warranted in asserting, that although it professes to be the 
result of long and minute observations, during a mission in 
those countries, and of subsequent profound researches and 
studies, yet the greater portion of the work is extracted 
from the present History and the preceding Memoir on the 
same subject, and it contains scarcely anything which might 



Xll PREFACE. 

not have been produced by one who had never quitted the 
barriers of Paris. The errors and misstatements of M. de 
Mofras are indeed innumerable, particularly in all that re- 
lates to the United States, towards which he appears to 
entertain feehno-s of aversion even stronger than towards 
Great Britain. To their discredit, history and statistics are 
made equally subservient ; and from the facts as thus pre- 
sented, always with extreme minuteness and precision of 
detail, conclusions are drawn, which have at least the merit 
of novelty. Thus while pathetically lamenting the entire 
disorganization of all the American Republics, he finds con- 
solation in the fact, that they all exhibit a general return to 
monarchical predilections, even the United States, " where 
the tendencies of the loyalist party (?) are well known.'''' He 
resigns the hope that France will recover her former domin- 
ions on this continent, but he is assured that " the Cana- 
dians are at this day as French as in the times of the 
Duquesnes and Beauharnais ; " and he confidently pro- 
nounces, that whensoever they may throw off the detested 
yoke of Britain, a Franco-Canadian empire will be formed, 
extending from the Saint Lawrence to the Pacific, and in- 
cluding all the British possessions and Oregon, which will 
be bound to France by every tie, and will afford the most 
important aid for the expansion of her establishments in the 
Pacific. This songe diplomatique seems to have aflfected 
the imagination of M. de Mofras most strongly, and traces 
of its influence are to be found in every part of his work ; 
of his care in citing authorities, and his ingenuity in draw- 
ing deductions suitable to these views, remarkable instances 
will be found in the note on page 159 of this volume. 

With these preliminary remarks and explanations, the 
author presents his book to the public, trusting that it may 
prove useful, in placing the difficult questions on which it 
treats, in a clearer light, and may thus contribute to their 
just and peaceful determination. 

Washington, March, 1845. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



GEOGRAPHY OF THE WESTERN SECTION OF NORTH 

AMERICA. 

GENERAL VIEW. 

Great Natural Divisions of N. America, 3 — Coasts on the Pacific and the Arctic Seas, 
, 4 — Mountain Chains of the Pacific Section — Far- West Mountains, 5 — Rocky Moun- 
tains — Blue Mountains, 6 — Climate of the Pacific Section — Lakes, 7 — Rivers, 8 — 
Central Regions of JN. America — Animals and Vegetables of the Pacific Section — Na- 
tives, [) — Establishments of civilized Nations, 10 — Political Limits, IL 

CALIFORNIA, 

Extent and Divisions — Gulf of California, 12 — Pearl Fishery — Sonora and Sinaloa, 1.3 — 
Peninsula of California — Its Climate, Soil, Productions, and Animals, 14 — Aborigines^ 
Ports and Mexican Settlements, 15 — Continental or New California — Its Extent, Soil, 
Climate, 16 — Ports and Mexican Settlements — San Diego, Santa Barbara — Monterey, 
17 — San Francisco — River Sacramento, 18 — Bodega — Cape Mendocino, 19 — Interior 
Regions — River Colorado — Utah Lake, 20. 



OREGON. 

Natural and assumed Boundaries, 21 — Strait of Fuca, 22 — Columbia River — North 
Branch, 23 — South Branch — Main Trunk, 24. — Far- West Mountains, 25 — Westernmost 
Region of Oregon, 26 — Blue Mountains — Middle Region — Easternmost or Rocky 
Mountain Region, 27 — New Caledonia, 28 — North-West Archipelago, 29 — Aborigines, 
30— Hudson's Bay Company's Establishments, 31 — American Settlements, 33. 



RUSSIAN AMERICA. 

Extent and Limits — Russian American Company, 36 — District of Sitka — Sitka or New 
Archangel — District of Kodiak, .37 — Cook's Inlet — Prince William's Sound — Mount 
St. Elias — Aliaska — Aleutian Islands — Michaelof District, 38 — Kamtchatka — Kurile 
Islands, 39. 



Sandwich Islands, 39— Marquesas Islands — Society Islands, 40 — Projects for Canals 
unitmg the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 41. 



XIV CONTENTS. 



HISTORY OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, ETC. 

CHAPTER 1. 

TO 1543. 

Preliminary Observations, 45 — Efforts of the Spaniards to discover Western Passages to 
India — Successive Discoveries of the West Indies, the JNorth American Continent, the 
Eastern Passage to India, Brazil, and the Pacific Ocean, 4G — Search for a navigable Pas- 
sage connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans — Supposed Discovery of such a Pas- 
sage, called the Strait of Anian, 41 — Discovery of Magellan's Strait and the Western 
Passage to India, 48 — Conquest of Mexico by Cortes, who endeavors to discover new 
countries farther north-west, 50 — Voyages of Maldonado, Hurtado de Mendoza, Grijalva, 
and Becerra, 54 — Discovery of California — Expedition of Cortes to California, 55 — Pre- 
tended Discoveries of i'riar Marcos de Wiza, 69 — Voyages of UUoa, Alarcon, and Cabrillo, 
60 — Expeditions of Coronado and Soto, Gl — The Spaniards desist from their Efforts to 
explore the Worth-West Coasts of America, 65. 

CHAPTER II. 

1543 TO 1608. 

The Spaniards conquer the Philippine Islands, and establish a direct Trade across the Pacific, 
between Asia and America, (i6 — Measures of the Spanish Government to prevent other 
European Nations from settling or trading in America, 68 — These Measures resisted by 
the English, the French, and the Dutch — Free Traders and Freebooters infest the West 
Indies, 70 — First Voyages of the English in the Pacific, 72 — Voyages of Drake and Cav- 
endish, 73 — Endeavors of the English to discover a North- West Passage from the Atlan- 
tic to the Pacific, 77 — False Reports of the Discovery of such Passages, 78 — Supposed 
Voyages of Urdaneta, Maldonado, and Fonte, 79 — Voyage of Juan de Fuca, 86 — Expedi- 
tions of Sebastian Vizcaino, 90 — Supposed Discovery of a great River in North- West 
America, 93. 

CHAPTER III. 

1608 TO 17C8. 

The North-West Coasts of North America remain nearly neglected during the whole of this 
Period, 96 — Efforts of the English and tlie Dutch to find new Passages into the Pacific — 
Discovery of Hudson's Bay and Baffin's Bay, 97 — Discovery of the Passage around Cape 
Horn — Establishment of the Hudson's Bay Trading Company — Endeavors of the Span- 
iards to settle California unsuccessful, 98 — The Jesuits undertake the Reduction of Cal- 
ifornia, 99 — Establisiiments of the Jesuits in the Peninsula, 100, and their Expulsion from 
the Spanish Dominions, 106. 

CHAPTER IV. 

1769 TO 1779. 

First Establishments on the West Coast of California founded by the Spaniards, 108 — Dis- 
pute between Spain and (Jrcat Britain respecting the Falkland Islands, 111 — Exploring 
Voyages of the Spaniards under Perez, 111, Heceta and Bodega, 117, and Arteaga and Bo- 
dega, 125 — Discovery of Nootka Sound, Norfolk Sound, and the Mouth of the Columbia 
River, 120 — Importance of these Discoveries, 124, 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER V . 

1711 TO 1779. 

Discoveries of the Russians from Kamtchatka — Voyages of Bering and Tchirikof to the 
Arctic Sea and to the American Continent, 129 — Establishments of the Russian Fur Tra- 
ders in the Aleutian Islands, 135 — Voyages of Synd, Krenitzin, and Levashcf, 137 — First 
Voyage from Kamtchatka to China, made by Polish Exiles under Benyowsky, 138 — General 
Inaccuracy of the Ideas of the Russians respecting the Geography of the northernmost 
Coasts of the Pacific, before 177'J, 139. 

CHAPTERVl. 

1763 TO 1780. 

Great Britain obtains Possession of Canada, 1 10 — Journey of Carver to the Upper Missis- 
sippi, 14-1 — First Mention of the Orcfron Kivcr, 1 12 — Inaccuracy of Carver's Statements, 
1 W — Journeys of Hearne through tlie Refiions west of Hudson's Bay, 1 1.5 — Voyage of 
Captain Cook to the North Pacific, 147 — His important Discoveries in tliat Quarter, and 
Death, 157 — Return of his Ships to Europe j Occurrences at Canton during their Stay in 
that Port, 158. 

CHAPTER VII. 

1780 TO 1789. 

Commercial Results of Cook's Discoveries. IGO — Settlements of the Russians in America, 
161 — Scheme of Ledyard for the Trade of the North Pacific, 1G2 — Voyage of La Perouse, 
163 — Direct Trade between the American Coasts and Canton commenced, 165 — Voyages 
of the English Fur Traders — Re-discovery of the Strait of Fuca, 171 — Voyage of 
Meares, who endeavors to find a great River described by the Spaniards, 17.5 — First 
Voyages from the United States to the South Pacific, and to Canton, 179 — Voyage of the 
Columbia and Washington, under Kcndrick and Gray, from Boston to the North Pa- 
cific, 180. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1788 AND 1789. 

Uneasiness of the Spanish Government at the Proceedings of the Fur Traders in the Nortli 
Pacific, 183 — Voyages of Observation by Martinez and Haro to the Kussian American 
Settlements, 185 — Remonstrances of the Court of Madrid to that of St. Petersburg, 
against the alleged Encroachments of the latter Power, 186 — Martinez and Haro sent by the 
Viceroy of Mexico to take Possession of Nootka Sound, 187 — (Claims of Spain examined, 
\^8 — Seizure of British and other Vessels at Nootka by Martinez, 191 — Captain Gray, 
in the Washington, explores tlic East (^oast of Queen Charlotte's Island, and enters the 
Strait of Fuca, 199 — Kendrick. in the Washington, passes through the Strait of Fuca — 
Return of the Columbia to the United States, 200. 



CHAPTER IX. 

1790. 

Controversy between Great Britain and Spain respecting the North-West Coasts of America 
and the Navigation of the Pacific, 202 — The Owners of the Vessels seized at Nootka 
apply for Redress to the British Government, which demands Satisfaction for the aliened 
Outrages, 203 — Spain resists the Demand, and calls on France for Aid, agreeably to the 



XVI CONTENTS. 

Family Compact, 207 — Proceedings in the JNational Assembly of France on the Subject, 
208 — Spain engaifcs to indemnify the British for the Property seized, 203 — Furtlier De- 
mands of Great Britain — Designs of Pitt against Spanish America, 20b — Secret Mediation 
of France, through which the Dispute is settled, 209 — Convention of October, 1790, 
called the iXootka Treaty, 210 — Proceedings in Parliament, and Reflections on this Con- 
vention, 211. 



CHAPTER X . 

1790 TO 1792. 

Vancouver sent by the British Government to explore the Coasts of America, and receive 
Possession of Lands and Buildings agreeably to the Convention with Spain, 21f) — Passage 
of the Washington, under Kendrick, through the Strait of Fuca, in 1789, 218 — Nootka re- 
occ\ipied by the Spaniards, 220 — Voyages of Fidalgo. Quimper, F.lisa, Billings, Marchand, 
and Malaspina, 221 — Voyages of the American Fur Traders, Gray, Ingraliam, and Ken- 
drick, 22-1 — Discovery of the Washington Islands by Ingraham, 226. 



CHAPTER XI. 

1792 TO 1796. 

Vancouver and Broughton arrive on the American Coasts in 1792, and meet with Gray, who 
informs them of his Discovery of the Columbia River, 233 — The Strait of Fuca surveyed 
by Vancouver, Galiano, and Valdes, 238 — Negotiations between Vancouver and Quadra 
at Nootka, 21.3 — Vancouver's Injustice to the Americans, 214, 248,256 — Broughton's Ex- 
amination of the Lower Part of the Columbia River, 217 — Vancouver's Proceedings at the 
Sandwich Islands, 249 — He completes the Survey of the North-VV^est Coasts of America, 
and returns to England, 233 — The Spaniards abandon jNootka, 237 — Conclusions with 
Regard to the Dispute between Great Britain and Spain, and the Convention of 1790, 233. 



CHAPTER XII. 

1788 TO 1810. 

Establishment of the North-West Fur Trading Company of Montreal, in 1781, 261 — Expedi- 
tions of Mackenzie to the Arctic Sea and to the Pacific Coast, 2ii3 — The Trade between 
the North Pacitic Coasts of America and Canton conducted almost exclusively by Vessels 
of the United States from 1796 to 181+, 2(i6 — Establi^hnicut of the Russian American 
Company, 269 — Its Settlements and Factories on the American Coasts, 270 — Expedition 
of Krusenstern through the North Pacific, 272 — Proposition of the Russian Govenmient 
to that of the United States, with Regard to the Trade of the North Pacific, 273. 



CHAPTER X I i I . 

1803 TO 1806. 

Cession of Louisiana by France to the United States, 276 — Inquirii-s as to the true Extent 
of Louisiana, 277 — Erroneous Supposition that its Limits towards the North had been 
fixed by Commissaries agreeably to the Treaty of 1 ■trerht.281 — President .lefterson sends 
Lewis and (Clarke to examine the Missouri and Columbia, 231 — Account of their Expedi- 
tion from the Mississippi to the Pacific, 285. 



CONTENTS. XVii 

CHAPTER XIV. 

180G TO 1815. 

First Establishments of the JVorth-West Company in the Countries north of the Columbia, 
290 — Taeific Fur Company formed at JS'cvv York, 21)2 — Plan of its i'ounder, 293 — First 
Expedition from New York in the Tonquin, 293 — Foundation of Astoria near the Pdouth 
of the Columbia River, 29(j — March of tlie Party under Hunt and Crooks across the 
Continent, 298 — Arrival of th.c Beaver in the Columbia, 299 — Destruction of the Ton- 
quin by the Savages, 300 — War between the United States and Great Britain fatal to tlie 
Enterprise, 301 — Establishments of tlic Pacific Company sold to the JNorth-West Com- 
pany, 303 — Astoria taken by the British, 30'1 — Dissolution of the Pacific Company, 303. 



CHAPTERXV. 

1814 TO 1820. 

Restitution of Astoria to the United States by Great Britain, agreeably to the Treaty of 
Ghent, 309 — Alleged Reservation of Rights on the Part of Great Britain, 310 — First Ne- 
gotiation between the (Governments of Great Britain and the United States respecting the 
Territories west of the Rocky Mountains, and C^onvention for the joint Occupancy of 
those Territories, 311 — Florida Treaty between Spain and the United States, by which 
the Latter acquires the Title of Spain to the North-VVest Coasts, 313 — Colonel Long's 
exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 322 — Disputes between the British North- 
West and Hudson's Bay Companies, 321. — Union of tliose Bodies — Act of Parliament 
extending the Jurisdiction of the Canada Courts to the Pacific Countries, 323 — Russian 
Establishments on the North Pacific, 327 — Expeditions in Search of Northern Passages 
between tiie Atlantic and the Pacific, 320 — Death of Tamahamaiia, and Introduction of 
Christianity into the Sandwich Islands, 329. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

1820 TO 1828. 

Bill reported by a Committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, for the 
Occupation of the Columbia River, 331 — Ukase of the Emperor of Russia, with Regard to 
the North Pacific Coasts, 332 — Negotiations between the Governments of Great Britain, 
Russia, and the United States, 33.5 — Conventions between the United States and Russia, 
and between Great Britain and Russia, 341 — Further Negotiations between the United 
States and Great Britain relative to the North-West Coasts, 344 — Indefinite Extension of 
the Arrangement for the joint Occupancy of the Territories west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, by the British and the Americans, 33k 



CHAPTER XVll. 

1823 TO 1843. 

Few Citizens of the United States in the Countries west of the Rocky Mountains between 
iyi3 and 1823, .SSf) — Trading F^xpeditions of Ashley, Sublette, Smitli, Pilcher, Pattie. 
Bonneville, and Wyeth, .337 — Missionaries from the 'United States form Establishments 
on the(.'olumbia, .360 — First Printing Press set up in Oregon, ;5C1 — Opposition of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company to the Americans; how exerted, .339 — Controversy between tlie 
United States and Russia, 3(i2 — Dispute between the Hudson's Bay and the Russian 
American (,'oinpanies ; how terminated, .363 — California, 365 — Capture of Monterev by 
Commodore ,Ioncs. 368 — The Sandwich Ishinds. .'Ki'.) — Proceedings of the Missionaries, 
370 — Expulsion of the Catholic Priests, and their Reinstatement by a l''rench Force, 
372 — The Sandwich Islands temporarily occupied by the British, 374 — E.xploring Expe- 
dition of the Americans under Wilkes, 375. 

C 



XVm CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVII I. 

1842 TO 1845. 

Excitement in the United States respecting Oregon, 376 — Bill in the Senate for the imme- 
diate Occupation of Oregon, 37y — That Bill inconsistent with the Convention of 1827, 
between the United States and (Jreat Britain, 388 — Renewal of Negotiations betweea 
the United States and Great Britain — Emigrations from the United States to Oregon, 
391 — State of the Hudson's Bay Company's Possessions, 393 — Conclusion. 



PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Original Account of the Voyage of the Greek Pilot Juan de Fuca along the North-West 
Coasts of America in 1592 407 

B. 

Furs and the Fur Trade 411 

C. 

Correspondence between the Spanish Commandant at Nootka Sound, and the Masters of the 
American trading Vessels Columbia and Hope, respecting the Occurrences at that Place 
in the Summer of 1789 413 

D. 

Original Documents relative to the Dispute between Great Britain and Spain, in 1790. . 418 

E. 

Original Documents relative to the Discovery of the Columbia River, by the Spaniards and 
the Americans 430 



Showing that the Forty-ninth Parallel of Latitude was not selected as the Line of Separation 
between the French and the British Territories in North America, by Commissioners ap- 
pointed agreeably to the Treaty of Utrecht 43G 

G. 

Papers relative to the American Establishment of Astoria, on the Columbia River. . . 439 

H. 

Statements presented on each side in the course of the Conferences, held at London, in De- 
cember 1826, between Messrs. Huskisson and Addington, the British Plenipotentiaries, and 
Mr. Gallatin, the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States 446 

I. 

Documents relating to the Hudson's Bay Company 466 

K. 

Treaties and Conventions relative to the North- West Territories of North America. . 476 



GEOGRAPHY 



WESTERN SECTION OF NORTH AMERICA. 



GEOGRAPHY 



OF THE 



WESTERN SECTION OF NORTH AMERICA, 



GENERAL VIEW. 

North America borders upon three great divisions of the ocean : the 
Atlantic on tlie east — the Arctic on the north — and the Pacific on the 
south and west — each of which receives, either directly or through its 
gulfs and bays, the superfluous waters from a corresponding great section 
of the continent. 

These three great sections of North America are unequal in extent, 
and different in the character of their surface. At least one half of the 
continent is drained by streams entering the Atlantic ; and of that half, 
the waters from the larger, as well as the more fertile portion, are carried 
by the Mississippi into the Mexican Gulf. Of the other two sections, that 
which borders on the Arctic Sea is probably the more extensive. The 
Atlantic and the Arctic sections present each a large proportion of sur- 
face, nearly plane, and comparatively little elevated above the sea; and the 
line of separation between them is so indistinctly marked as to be, in 
many places, imperceptible. The Pacific section, on the contrary, is 
traversed in every part by steep and lofty ridges of highland ; and it is 
completely divided from the other portions by a chain of mountains, 
extending, in continuation of the Andes of South America, from the 
Isthmus of Panama, north-westward, to the utmost extremities of the con- 
tinent in that direction. 

Of the Atlantic coast of America it is unnecessary here to speak 
particularly. The irregularity of its outline, the numerous gulfs and bays 
enclosed by its sinuosities, the great rivers flowing through it into the sea, 
the archipelagoes in its vicinity, and all its other characteristic features, 
may be found minutely described in many works. The only parts of this 
coast, to which reference will be hereafter made, are those surrounding 
the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson's Bay, as many of the most important 
discoveries on the western side of the continent have been effected in 
consequence of the belief in the existence of a direct navigable communi- 
cation between those portions of the Atlantic and the Pacific. 

The Pacific coast extends from Panama, near the 9th degree of latitude,* 
westward and northward, without any remarkable break in its outline, to 

* All latitudes mentioned in the following pages are north latitudes, unless other- 
wise specially stated. 



4 GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 

the 23d parallel, under which the Gulf of California, separating the pen- 
insula of California from the main continent on the east, joins the ocean. 
From the southern extremity of this peninsula, called Cape San Lucas, 
situated near the entrance of the gulf, the American coast runs north- 
westward to the foot of Mount St. Elias, a stupendous volcanic peak, 
rising from the shore, under the GOth parallel ; beyond which the con- 
tinent stretches far westward, between the Pacific on the south and the 
Arctic Sea on the north, to its termination at Cape Prince of Wales, 
near the 64th degree. 

Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost point of America, is the eastern 
pillar of Bering's Strait, a passage only fifty miles in width, separating that 
continent from Asia, and forming tlie only direct communication between 
the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans. Beyond it, the shores of Asia and 
Europe have been explored in their whole length on the Arctic Sea, 
though no vessel has hitherto made a voyage through that sea from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, or vice versa. The north coast of America has 
been traced from Cape Prince of Wales, north-eastward, to Point Barrow, 
near the 71st degree of latitude, and thence, eastward, more than fifteen 
hundred miles, though not continuously, to the Atlantic. The portion 
north of Hudson's Bay is still imperfectly discovered; and the interesting 
question whether the Arctic Sea there mingles its waters with those of the 
Atlantic, or is separated from them by the extension of the continent to 
the north pole, remains undetermined. Many circumstances, however, 
combine to favor the belief that a communication will be found between 
the two oceans, either through Fox's Channel, the northernmost part of 
Hudson's Bay, or through Lancaster Sound, which joins Baffin's Bay, 
under the 74th parallel; though there is little reason to expect that anv 
facilities for commercial intercourse will be gained by the discovery. 

The Pacific coast, between the entrance of the Californian Gulf and the 
Strait of Fuca, which joins the ocean under the 49th parallel, presents 
few remarkable indentations, and the islands in its vicinity are neither 
numerous nor large. North of the 49th parallel, on the contrary, the 
mainland is every where penetrated by inlets and bays ; and many pen- 
insulas protrude from it into the sea. In its vicinity, moreover, are . 
thousands of islands, some of them very large, lying singly or in groups, 
separated from each other, and from the continent, by narrow, intricate 
channels. The most extensive of these collections of islands is the North- 
West Archipelago, nearly filling a great recess of the coast, between the 
48th and the 58th parallels. Kodiak is the centre of another archipelago, 
on the east side of the peninsula of Aliaska; and a long line of islands, 
forming the Aleutian Archipelago, stretches from the southern extremity 
of Aliaska, westward, across the sea, in the course of the 54th parallel of 
latitude, to the vicinity of the opposite Asiatic peninsula of Kamtchatka. 
The part of the Pacific called the Sea of Kamtchatka, or Bering's Sea, 
north of the Aleutian chain, likewise contains several islands, situated, 
nearly all, close to the shores of one or the other continent. 

This coast, in its whole length, from the southern extremity of Cali- 
fornia to Bering's Strait, is bordered by lofty mountains, which appear to 
form a continuous cliain, partially broken, in a few places, by the passage 
across it of rivers from the interior. The mountains rise, for the most 
part, immediately from the sea-shore, above which they may be se§n 
towering one, two, and even three, miles in perj)cndicular elevati'^\ ; in 



GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. ^ 5 

some places, however, the main ridge is separated from the ocean by 
tracts of lower country, as much as one hundred miles in breadth, trav- 
ersed by parallel lines of hills. This ridge, for which no general name 
has yet been adopted,* is almost entirely of volcanic formation ; being 
part of the great line or system of volcanoes, which extends from Mexico to 
the East Indies, passing along the west coast of America, from the south- 
ernmost point of California to the south-west extreme of Aliaska, thence 
through the Aleutian Islands to Kamtchatka, and thence southward 
through the Kurile, the Japan, the Philippine, and the Molucca Islands. 
There are many elevated peaks, nearly all of them volcanoes, in every 
part of the chain ; the most remarkable break, or gap, is that near the 
4Gth degree of latitude, through which the Columbia rushes, at the dis- 
tance of a hundred miles from the Pacific. 

The great chain of mountains wiiicli separates the streams emptying 
into the Pacific from those flowing into the other divisions of the ocean, 
runs throuah the northern continent, as through the southern, in a line 
generally parallel with the shore of the Pacific, and much nearer to that 
sea than to the Atlantic. Under the -10th degree of latitude, where the 
western section of America is widest, the distance across it, from the 
summit of the dividing chain to the Pacific, is about seven hundred miles, 
whicli is not more than one third of the distance from the same point of 
the mountains to the Atlantic, measured in the same latitude. 

The dividing chain south of the 40th degree of latitude has received 
many names, no one of which seems to have been universally adopted. 
It has been called, by some geographers, the Anahuac Mountains; and by 
that name, though entirely unknown to the people of the adjacent country, 
it will be distinguished whenever reference is made to it in the fol- 
lowing pages. 

The portion of the great ridge north of the 40th parallel is generally 
known as the Rocky or Stony Mountains. From that latitude, its course 
is nearly due north-westward, and gradually approaching the line of the 
Pacific coast, to the 54th degree, where the main chain turns more west- 
ward, and continues in that direction so far as it has been traced, — prob- 
ably to Bering's Strait. Another ridge, called the Chipewyan Moun-« 
tains, indeed, extends, as if in prolongation of the Rocky Mountains, from 
the 53d parallel, north-westward, to the Arctic Sea, where it ends near the 
70th degree of latitude; but the territory on its western side is drained 
by streams entering that sea either directly, or passing through the ridge 
into the Mackenzie River, which flows along its eastern base. 

The Rocky Mountains, so far as their geological structure has been 
ascertained, consist of primary formations, principally of granite. Though 
rising, in many places, from eight to sixteen thousand feet above the 
ocean level, they do not, in general, appear very high to the beholder, on 
account of the great elevation of the country at their bases. On the east- 
ern side, within a hundred and fifty miles of the great chain, and running 
nearly parallel to it, are several ridges, from which the surface gradually 
declines, becoming more nearly plane as it approaches the Mississippi, 
the Red River, and Hudson's Bay. The part of the continent west of the 
Rocky Mountains is, as already stated, traversed, in its whole extent, by 

* The author of tliis work ventures to propose, for the great ridge here mentioned, 
the name of Far-West Mountains, which seems to be more definite, and in every 
respect more appropriate, than any other v.'hioh could be adopted. 



6 GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 

lofty ridges, separated only by narrow valleys, or plains of moderate width. 
The country at the base of the chain, on the Atlantic side, is probably 
nowhere less than four thousand feet above the level of the sea ; and that 
on the Pacific side is doubtless much higher. 

The most elevated portion of the Rocky Mountains is about the 54th 
degree of latitude, where the chain turns towards the west; several peaks 
in that vicinity have been ascertained to rise more than sixteen thousand 
feet above the ocean level. Many points, which are undoubtedly more 
than ten thousand feet hi height, have been found in the portion of the 
dividing ridge called the Wind River Mountains, near the 42d degree of 
latitude, and farther south, in Long's Range, where the sources of the 
Arkansas River are situated. 

Among these mountains, nearly all the greatest rivers in North America 
have their sources. Within a hundred miles of the point where the chain 
is crossed liy the 41st parallel, rise — on the eastern side — the Missouri, 
the Yellowstone, the Platte, and the Arkansas, the waters of all which are 
carried through the Mississippi into the Mexican Gulf, and the River 
Bravo del Norte, which falls into the same arm of the Atlantic ; while — on 
the western side — are found the springs of the Lewis, or Snake, the princi- 
pal southern branch of the Columbia which enters the Pacific, and those 
of the Colorado, which terminates in the head or northern extremhy of 
the Californiau Gulf. The sources of the Platte, and those of the Green 
River, the largest head-water of the Colorado, are situated at opposite ends 
of a cleft, or transverse valley, in the Rocky Mountains, called the South 
Pass, in latitude of 42 degrees 20 minutes, which seems destined to be 
the gate of communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific regions 
of the continent. In another great cleft, called by the British traders 
the Punch Bowl, near the 53d parallel, overhung by the highest peaks 
of the chain, the northern branch of the Columbia issues from a lake, 
situated within a few feet of another lake, from which runs the west 
branch of the Athabasca, one of the affluents to the Mackenzie ; and at a 
short distance south rises the Saskatchawine, which takes its course east- 
ward to Lake Winnipeg, and contributes to the supply of Hudson's Bay. 
In many places between the 42d and the 50th degrees of latitude, the 
upper streams of the Missouri lie very near to those of the Columbia ; but 
no gap or depression, which appears to offer facilities for travelling or 
transportation of merchandise, has been discovered in that part of the 
dividing chain. 

The ridges between the Rocky Mountains and the great westernmost 
chain which borders the Pacific coast, appear to be all united with one or 
both of those chains, and to run, for the most part, in the same general 
direction, from south-east to north-west. The most extensive of these 
intermediate ridges, called the Snowy Mountains, is believed to stretch 
uninterruptedly from the Rocky Mountains to the westernmost range, and 
even to the Pacific, nearly in the course of the 41st parallel of latitude, 
dividing the regions drained by the Columbia, on the north, from Cali- 
fornia, on the south. Another ridge, called the Blue Mountains, extends 
northward from the Snowy Mountains to the 47th parallel, bounding the 
valley of the Snake or Lewis River, the southern branch of the Columbia, 
on the west. A lofty ridge also runs from the westernmost chain, near 
the 48th degree of latitude, northward, to the Rocky Mountains, which it 
joins near the 54th degree, separating the waters of the northern branch 



GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 7 

of the Columbia from those of Frascr's River on the west, and constituting 
another natural boundary to the territory drained by the former stream. 
Of the interior of California, little is known with certainty : it is, however, 
probable that a ridge extends from the Snowy Mountains, near their 
junction with the Rocky Mountains, about the 4'2d degree of latitude, 
southward, to the great westernmost chain, near the 32d degree, where the 
Californian peninsula joins the continent, forming the western wall of the 
valley of the Colorado River. 

The territories west of the Rocky Mountains abound in lakes, several 
of which present surfaces of great extent : some of them communicate 
with rivers ; others have no outlet, and their waters are consequently salt.* 
The largest, called the Timpanogos, or Utah Lake, among the Snowy 
Mountains, between the 40tli and the 42d degrees of latitude, belongs to 
the latter class, and is probably not less than two thousand miles in area. 
The most extensive of the fresh-water lakes is the Kullispelm, or Clarke's 
Lake, formed by the expansion of the Clarke River, in a valley surrounded 
by high mountains, under the 48th parallel. 

The countries on the Pacific side of North America differ materially in 
climate from those east of the great dividing range of mountains situated 
in the same latitudes, and at equal distances from and elevations above the 
ocean. These differences are less within the torrid zone, and beyond the 
60th parallel; but in the intermediate space, every part of the Pacific sec- 
tion is much warmer and much drier than places in the Atlantic or the 
Arctic sections under the same conditions as above expressed. Thus the 
north-westernmost regions of America appear to be as cold, and to receive as 
much rain and snow from the heavens, as those surrounding Baffin's Bay, 
or those in their own immediate vicinity in Asia; but in the countries on 
the Pacific side corresponding in latitude and other respects with Wis- 
consin, Canada, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, the ground is rarely 
covered with snow for more than three or four weeks in each year, and it 
often remains unfrozen throughout the winter. In the countries on the 
west coast, opposite to Virginia and Carolina, the winter is merely a wet 
season, no rain falling at any other time; and in the Californian peninsula, 
which is included between the same parallels of latitude as Georgia and 
Florida, the temperature is as high as in any tropical region, and many 
years in succession pass by without a shower or even a cloud. It is 
likewise observed, especially between the 30th and the 50tb parallels, that 
the interior portions of the Pacific section are much more dry, and the 

* Wherever water runs on or passes through the earth, it meets with salts, in 
quantities greater or less, according to the structure of the soil, and the space passed 
over or through : these salts it dissolves, and carries to its final recipient, thither the 
ocean, or some lake or marsh, or sandy region, having no communication, ntlier above 
or below the surface, with any lower recipient; and, <as the water car only escape 
naturally from this recipient, by evaporation, which cannot abstract -^ single saline 
particle, it follows, as a necessary consequence, that the salt must aJ'^'^ys be accumu- 
lating there. Thus the Dead Sea, which has no outlet, is saturate* with salts, while 
the Lake of Tiberias, from which it receives its waters through ^he Jordan, is per- 
fectly fresh; and innumerable other instances may be cited, in like manner, the 
ground in countries from which the water is not regularly cpfried otF by streams or 
mfiltration, is generally impregnated with salt ; of which e.T.tmples are offered in the 
-high plains of Mexico, in some valleys west of the Rc^ky Mountains, and in many 
parts of the United States. The reverse may not be always true ; but the saltness of 
a large body of water, or a large extent of ground, affords strong reasons for suspect- 
ing the want of a drain from it into a lower recipient. 



8 GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 

difference in temperature between the day and the succeeding night is, 
at all seasons, but particularly in summer, greater than in the countries 
nearer to the ocean. It is scarcely necessary to add, that, in territories 
so scantily and irregularly supplied with water, the surface must be, in 
general, bare and destitute of vegetation ; and such is the character of 
the greater portion of the continent west of the dividing range of 
mountains. 

The central regions of the continent east of the Rocky Mountains 
exhibit, though in a less degree, the same peculiarities of climate with 
those adjoining, in the Pacific section. The vast plains, extending from 
the vicinity of the dividing chain towards the Mississippi, south of the 
50th parallel of latitude, are almost as arid and barren as the countries on 
the other side of the ridge ; the rains are neither frequent nor heavy 
during the warm months, and the surface, except in a few spots near the 
rivers, consists of sand and sandstone strongly impregnated with salt, 
and affords support only to stiff grass and shrubs. Descending towards 
the Mississippi, the climate and soil become more favorable to vegetable 
life, and the country gradually assumes the characters of the other Atlan- 
tic regions. North of the 50th parallel, there is more rain or snow, at all 
seasons, on each side of the ridge, though less on the west than on the 
east; the intensity of the cold, and its long duration, particularly on the 
eastern side, render those territories almost all uninhabitable by those 
who depend on agriculture for subsistence. 

In consequence of this greater aridity of the climate on the western side 
of America, the irregularity of the surface, and the proximity of the 
dividing chain of mountains to the coast, the rivers on that side are 
generally neither so long, nor so abundant in water, nor navigable to 
such distances from their mouths, as those which fall into the Atlantic. 
The Columbia and the Colorado are the only streams known to flow from 
America into the Pacific, which can be compared, in any of these 
respects, with several in the other sections of the continent ; yet they 
are each certainly inferior to the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the 
Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Plate, and probably, also, to the Macken- 
zie. These and the other rivers of Western America run, in nearly their 
whole course, through deep ravines, among stony mountains ; and they 
are, for the most part, crossed at short intervals by ledges of rock, pro- 
ducing falls and rapids, which render all navigation on them impossible, 
and to overcome which, all the resources of art would be unavailing. 

In the territory east of the dividing chain, and south of the 50th paral- 
lel of latitude, are many rivers flowing from the mountains to the Missis- 
sippi ; hut none of them seem calculated to serve as channels for commu- 
nication between the Atlantic and the Pacific regions. The Missouri and 
the Yellowitone each take a devious course ; so that, after ascending 
either of theu to the head of its navigation, the distance to the habitable 
countries on th;; Pacific is almost as great as from a point on the Missouri, 
more than fiftce. hundred miles below. The Platte flows nearly, under 
the 42d parallel ol latitude, from its source in the South Pass, the princi- 
pal cleft of the RocVy Mountains, to the Missouri, precisely in the direc- 
tion most favorable for intercourse between the Mississippi and the 
Columbia countries; but u is the most shallow of all large rivers: travers- 
ing a surface nearly plain, the increase of its waters, produced annually 
by the rains and melting of the snows, only serves to render it wider, 



GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 9 

without any considerable increase of its depth, which is every where too 
small for the passage of the lightest boats. Nature has, however, pro- 
vided a road along its banks, over which heavy wagons now annually roll 
between Missouri and Oregon; and, with a little assistance from art in 
some places, this road may be rendered one of the best in the world. 

The territory farther north, extending from the Rocky Mountains to 
Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Sea, is traversed by innumerable rivers 
falling into those parts of the ocean. Of these, the principal are the Red 
River, of the north, the Assinaboin, and the Saskatchavvine, emptying into 
Lake Winnipeg, which communicates by several channels with Hudson's 
Bay, and the Missinippi or Churchill's River, falling directly into that 
bay ; while the Arctic Sea receives, nearly under the 69th parallel of 
latitude. Back's or the Great Fish River, the Coppermine, and the 
Mackenzie, the latter draining a territory scarcely less extensive than 
tiiat of the Columbia. The regions crossed by these rivers are, in gen- 
eral, so nearly level, that it is, in many places, difficult to trace the limits 
of the tracts from which the waters flow into their respective channels or 
basins. They contain numerous lakes, some very large, and nearly all 
connected with each other, and with the Arctic Sea on the north, and 
Hudson's Bay on the east ; and the head-waters of the rivers supplying 
these reservoirs are situated in the vicinity of the sources of the Missis- 
sippi, or of the Missouri, or of the Columbia, or of the streams falling 
into Lake Superior, The rivers above named are all navigable for great 
distances by boats, and they thus afford considerable advantages for com- 
mercial intercourse ; goods being now transported across the continent, 
from the mouth of the Columbia to Hudson's Bay or to Montreal, and 
vice versa, almost entirely by water. 

Under circumstances of climate, soil, and conformation of surface, so 
different, it may be supposed that considerable differences should exist 
between the productions of the great divisions of America here men- 
tioned. It has been, accordingly, found that few species of plants or of 
animals are common to them all, and that many which abound in one arc 
rare, if not entirely wanting, in the others. Some plants, especially the 
pines and cedars, acquire a greater development in the regions near the 
Pacific than in any other country ; but a large portion of those territories 
is, from reasons already shown, entirely and irretrievably barren. In 
recompense for this sterility of the soil, the rivers of the Pacific section 
abound in fish, particularly in salmon, which ascend them to great dis- 
tances from the sea, and form the principal support of the inhabitants. 

With respect to the aborigines of these countries, the Arctic coasts 
of America are occupied by a race called Esquimaux, distinguished by 
peculiar marks from all others, who are likewise found on the northern- 
most shores of the Pacific, and particularly in the islands between the 
two continents, intermingled with the Tchukski, the aborigines of north- 
ernmost Asia. The remainder of the Pacific section, and, indeed, of the 
whole American continent, except, perhaps, Patagonia, appears to have 
been inhabited, before the entrance of the Europeans, by one and the 
same race ; the natives of the different portions differing btit slightly, con- 
sidering the varieties of climate, soil, and situation, and the consequent 
varieties in modes of life. That some admixture with the races of Soutl. 
eastern Asia may have taken place, is not improbable, from the fact that 
Japanese vessels have more than once been thrown on the north-west 

2 



10 GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 

coasts of America since the beginning of the present century ; but no 
evidence or strong ground of supposition of such admixture has been 
discovered in the appearance of any part of the population of those 
coasts. 

The settlements of civilized nations in the Pacific section of North 
America are inconsiderable in extent. ' Those of the Russians are scat- 
tered along the coasts and islands north of the latitude of 54 degrees 40 
minutes; they are all under the direction of the Russian American 
Trading Company, and are devoted entirely to the collection of the 
furs and skins of the land and sea animals abounding in that quarter, of 
which large quantities are transported for sale to Asia and Europe. Those 
of the British and of citizens of the United States are intermingled 
throughout the regions south and east of the Russian territory, to Cali- 
fornia ; the British, in general, occupying the parts north, and the - 
Americans those south, of the Columbia River, which enters the Pacific 
near the 46th degree of latitude. The people of both the last-mentioned 
nations have hitherto, likewise, been employed principally in the fur trade ; 
but, that business having become less profitable of late years, from the 
diminution of the animals, agricultural establishments have been formed, 
especially by the citizens of the United States, in the vicinity of the 
Columbia. The British are all under the control of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, which possesses, in virtue of a royal grant, the privilege, in 
exclusion of other British subjects, of trading in all the Indian countries 
of North America belonging to, or claimed by, that power; and they 
are protected and restrained by British laws, under an act of Parliament 
extending the jurisdiction of the Canada courts over those countries, so 
far as relates to subjects of that nation. The citizens of the United States, 
on the contrary, are deprived of all protection, and are independent of 
all control; as they are not subject to British laws, and their own govern- 
ment exercises no authority whatsoever over any part of America west of 
the Rocky Mountains. In California, south of the 3Sth degree of lati- 
tude, are many colonies, garrisons, and missionary stations, founded by 
the Spaniards during the last century, and now maintained by the Mexi- 
cans, who succeeded to the rights of Spain in 1821. They are all situ- 
ated in the immediate vicinity of the coasts, the interior regions being, as 
yet, almost unknown. It is worthy of remark, that California, though 
thinly inhabited by a wretched, indolent population, is the only part of 
the Pacific section of North America which can be considered as regularly 
settled, — which possesses an organized civil and social system, and where 
individuals hold a property in the soil secured to them by law. 

Each of these four nations claims the exclusive possession of a portion 
of the territory on the Pacific side of America, north of the Californian 
Gulf; and each of them is a party to some treaty with another, for the 
temporary use, or definitive sovereignty, of such portion. Thus it has 
been agreed, by treaty, in 1819, between the United States and Spain, — 
renewed, iu 1828, between the United States and Mexico, — that a line, 
drawn from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, in the course of the 
42d parallel of latitude, should separate the dominions of the former 
power on the north from those of Mexico on the south. It was, in like 
manner, agreed, in 1824, by convention between the United States and 
Russia, that the former nation should make no establishments on the 
coasts north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, and that the latter 



GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 11 

should make none south of the same line; but this convention was neu- 
tralized, and, in fact, abrogated, by a treaty concluded between Russia 
and Great Britain in the following year, by which all the territories of the 
main land and islands, north and west of a line drawn from the latitude 
of 54 detrrees 40 minutes, north-westward, alons the highlands borderino- 
the Pacific coasts, to Mount St. Elias, and thence due north to the Arctic 
Sea, were to belong to Russia, while all east and south of that line were 
to be the property of Great Britain. 

Thus, on the western side of North America, two lines of distinct 
boundary, or partition, each traversing the whole breadth of the Pacific 
section, have been recognised; the one between two powers. Great Britain 
and Russia, the other between two different powers, the United States and 
Mexico, — neither of which is, however, admitted by the third power, claim- 
ing, also, the possession of territodes contiguous to it. Of the vast di- 
vision of the continent and the adjacent islands between these two lines, 
no spot has yet been assigned, by mutual agreement, to any civilized 
nation. The United States claim the territories northward from the 42d 
parallel, and Great Britain claims those extending south and east from the 
other line, each to a distance undefined, but so fiir as to secure for itself 
the whole, or nearly the whole, of the regions traversed by the Columbia 
River. The American government has more than once proposed to 
adopt the forty-ninth parallel of latitude as the dividing line; the British 
have, however, constantly refused to assent to that or any other arrange- 
ment which should deprive them of the coasts and territories north of 
the Columbia River ; and neither nation being willing to recede from 
its pretensions, all the countries claimed by both, west of the Rocky 
Mountains, remain, by convention between the two governments, con- 
cluded in 1827, free and open to the citizens or subjects of both. 

Such is the present political condition of the Pacific regions of North 
America. This anomalous state of things cannot, however, endure much 
longer. The people of the United States are rapidly colonizing the fertile 
portions of the territory on the lower Columbia ; and no one acquainted 
with their character can suppose that they will submit to be deprived of 
their political birthright in those countries, while they have the slightest 
prospect of vindicating it. 

Having presented this concise general view of the western section of 
North America, its divisions will now be described in detail, beginning 
with the most southern, under the heads of California, Oregon, and Rus- 
sian America. 



CALIFORNIA. 



The name California was first assigned, by the Spaniards, in 153G, to 
the great peninsula which extends on the western side of North America, 
from the 3"^d degree of latitude, southwardly, to and within the limits of 
the torrid zone ; and it was afterwards made to comprehend the whole 
division of the continent north-west of Mexico, just as that of Florida 
was applied to the opposite portion on the Atlantic side. At the present 
day, California is usually considered as includiug the peninsula, and the 
territory extending from it, on the Pacific, northward, as far as the limits 
of Oregon, or the country of the Columbia River ; Cape Mendocino, in 
the latitude of 40 degrees 19 minutes, being assumed as the point of 
separation of the two coasts. The Mexican government, however, re- 
gards the 42d parallel of latitude as the northern limit of California, 
agreeably to the treaty concluded between that republic and the United 
States of America in 1828. 

California is naturally divided into two portions — the peninsular, called 
Old or Lower California — and the continental, or New, or Upper Califor- 
nia, the line of separation between which runs nearly along the 32d 
parallel of latitude, from the head or northern extremity of the Californian 
Gulf, westward to the Pacific. 

The Gulf of California will be first considered. This Gulf, called by 
the Spaniards the Sea of Cortes, but more commonly the Vermilion Sea, 
(Mar Vermejo,) is a great arm of the Pacific, which joins that ocean 
under the 23d parallel of latitude, and thence extends north-eastward, be- 
tween the American continent on the east and the Californian peninsula on 
the west, to its head or termination, near the 32d parallel, where it receives 
the waters of the Colorado and Gila Rivers. Its length is about seven 
hundred miles ; its breadth, at its junction with the Pacific, is one hundred 
miles : farther north, it is somewhat wider, and, still farther, its shores 
gradually approach each other, until they become the banks of the Colo- 
rado. It contains many islands, of which the largest are Carmen, near 
the 25th degree of latitude, Tiburon and Santa Ines, near the 29th, and 
some others at the northern extremity. The western or peninsular coasts 
of the gulf are high, steep, and rocky, offering very few places of security 
for vessels; and not a single stream which deserves the name of a river 
enters it on that side. The eastern or continental shores are generally 
low, and the sea in their vicinity is so shallow as to render the navigation 
along them dangerous. 

The peninsular coast of the gulf has long been celebrated for the great 
size and beauty of the pearls contained in the oysters which abound in 
the sea on that side ; and the search for those precious stones has always 
formed the principal employment of people of civilized nations in that 
quarter. The pearls are procured, with much danger and difficulty, by 



GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 13 

Indians, who dive for them to tlie depth of twenty or more feet, and of 
whom a large proportion are annually drowned or devoured by sharks. 
A company, formed at London in 1825, sent Lieutenant Hardy to the 
Californian coast, with two vessels, carrying diving-bells, by the aid of 
which it was expected that the pearl fishery might be conducted more 
safely, as well as profitably, than by the ordinary means; but, unfortu- 
nately, it proved that the oysters always lie in crevices of the rocks, to 
which no access can be had by persons in the diving-bell, and the enter- 
prise was, in consequence, abandoned. The value of the pearls obtained 
appears to be trifling when compared with the time and labor employed in 
the search for them. In 1825, eight vessels engaged in the business col- 
lected together five pounds of pearls, which were worth about ten thousand 
dollars. Occasionally, however, a single stone is found of value sufficient 
to afford compensation for years of fruitless labor; and some of the rich- 
est pearls in the regalia of Spain are the produce of the fishery in the 
Californian Gulf. 

The territory extending east from the Californian Gulf to the summit 
of the great dividing chain of the Anahuac Mountains, forms two politi- 
cal divisions of the Mexican republic, of which the northern is called 
Sonora, (a corruption of Senora,) and the southern Sinaloa. These 
countries are, as yet, thinly inhabited : from the general productive- 
ness of their soil, the salubrity of their climate, and the number and rich- 
ness of their mines of gold and silver, they seem calculated for the support 
of a large population, for which the gulf, and the many rivers flowing 
into it from the mountains on the east, will afford the means of communi- 
cating with other lands. The port of Guaymas, in Sonora, in latitude of 
27 degrees 40 minutes, is said to be one of the best on the Pacific side 
of America. Mazatlan, in Sonora, at the entrance of the Californian 
Gulf, has been, hitherto, more generally frequented ; but it is neither so 
secure as Guaymas, nor is the territory in its vicinity so productive or 
healthy. South-east of Mazatlan, in latitude of 27 degrees 29 minutes, 
is San Bias, the principal commercial port of Mexico on the Pacific, one 
of the hottest and most unhealthy spots on the globe ; and still farther, in 
the same direction, are Navidad, Acapulco, and the harbor of Tehuante- 
pec, all celebrated, in former times, as places of trade, but now decaying 
and deserted. 

The peninsula of California is about one hundred and thirty miles in 
breadth where it joins the continent, under the 32d parallel, that is to say, 
nearly in the same latitude with the city of Savannah, in Georgia. 
Thence it extends south-eastward, varying, but generally diminishing, in 
breadth between the Pacific on the west and the Californian Gulf on the 
east, to its termination in two points — Cape San Lucas, the south- 
westernmost, in latitude of 22 degrees .52 minutes, corresponding nearly 
with that of the city of Havanna, in Cuba — and Cape Palmo, (50 miles 
east by north of the other, at the entrance of the Californian Gulf 

Continental California extends, upon the Pacific, from the 32d parallel of 
latitude, where it joins the peninsula, about seven hundred miles north-west- 
ward to Oregon, from which it is divided, nearly in the course of the 42d 
parallel, — that is, nearly in the latitude of Boston, — by a chain of highlands 
called the Snowy Mountains, the Sierra Nevada of the Spaniards. Its 
boundaries on the west are not, as yet, determined politically by the 
Mexican government ; nor do geographers agree with regard to it3 



14 GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORMA. 

natural limits in that direction. By some, it is considered as embracinor, 
like Chili, only the territory between the Pacific and the summit of the 
great mountain chain, which borders the western side of the continent : 
others extend its limits to the Colorado; while others include in it, and 
others again exclude from it, the entire regions drained by that river. 
The only portion occupied by the Mexicans, or of which any distinct ac- 
counts have been obtained, is that between the great chain of mountains 
and the ocean ; the country east of that ridge to the Colorado appears to 
be an uninhabitable desert. 

The Californian peninsula is merely the southern portion of the great 
westernmost chain of mountains, prolonged through the Pacific. It 
consists eutirely of high, stony ridges, separated by narrow, sandy val- 
leys, and contains no tracts of level ground of any extent. At its 
southern extremity, the earth is sometimes visited by showers in the sum- 
mer, but never at any other period of the year : near its junction with 
the continent, rain is seen only in winter ; and in the intermediate por- 
tion, many years in succession pass by without the appearance of a 
drop of water from the heavens, or indeed of a single cloud, while the 
rays of the sun, thus uninterrupted in their passage, produce a heat as 
intense as that in any other region of the world. Under such circum- 
stances, as might be supposed, the springs of water are few and slender, 
and the surface is almost every where destitute of vegetation. The 
peninsula is, on the whole, an irreclaimable desert: yet, wherever irri- 
gation is practicable, the productiveness of the soil is extraordinary ; and 
the little oases formed by the passage of a slender rivulet through a 
narrow, sandy defile, may thus be made to yield all the fruits of tropical 
climes in abundance, and of the finest quality. 

The southern portion of the peninsula contains several mines of gold, 
which have been worked, though not extensively. The only mine as yet 
discovered in continental California is one of gold, situated at the foot 
of the great westernmost range of mountains, on the west, at the dis- 
tance of twenty-five miles from Angeles, the largest town in the country. 
It is said to be of extraordinary richness. 

The animals originally found in California were buffaloes, — though in 
small numbers, compared with those east of the Rocky Mountains, — deer, 
elk, bears, wild hogs, wild sheep, ocelotes, beavers, foxes, and many others, 
generally of species different from those in the Atlantic regions of the 
continent. Sea otters were very abundant on the northern parts of the 
coasts, but they have disappeared. Cattle and horses were introduced by 
the Spaniards from Mexico, and have increased in an extraordinary de- 
gree, particularly the cattle, with which the valleys near the coast of the 
continental portion are covered. One of the scourges of this country is 
the chapul, a kind of grasshopper, which appears in summer, especially 
after a mild winter, in clouds resembling the locusts of Southern Asia, 
destroying every vegetable substance in their way. 

The aborigines of California are placed, by those who have had the 
best opportunity of studying their character and disposition, with the 
Hottentots, the Patagonians, and the Australians, among the lowest of the 
human race ; those of the continental portion being considered less fero- 
cious, but more indolent and vicious, than the natives of the peninsula. 
The Spaniards made many attempts, during the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, to found settlements in the country, all of which proved 



GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 15 

abortive; until, at length, in 1699, the Jesuits, by permission of the king 
of Spain, undertook to convert the natives to Christianity, and to initiate 
them into the usages and arts of civilized life. With this view, they 
formed a number of missions, near the east coasts of the peninsula, and, 
by untiring assiduity, they had succeeded partly in their objects before 
176S, when the Jesuits were, in execution of a decree issued at Madrid, 
expelled from the Spanish dominions ; their establishments were then 
confided to the Dominicans, under whose charge they have since re- 
mained with little advantage in any way. 

The number of persons in the peninsula at present has been variously 
estimated ; from the best accounts, it does not exceed five thousand, of 
whom a small proportion only are Mexicans, and very few are of European 
origin. The principal places now occupied by the Mexicans are — Loreto, 
formerly the principal mission of the Jesuits, and now the capital of Old 
California, a miserable village of about two hundred persons, situated 
near the gulf, opposite the Island of Carmen, in latitude of 25 degrees 14 
minutes — La Paz, on the Bay of Pichilingue, a little farther south, the 
port of communication with Mexico — and Port San Jose, near Cape San 
Lucas, where an establishment has been recently formed in a plain, watered 
by a slender rill. From these places, small quantities of tortoise shells, dried 
meat, cheese, and dried fruits, the latter said to be excellent, are sent to 
San Bias, in Mexico, or sold to trading vessels which occasionally enter 
the gulf during their tour along the coasts. There are several other 
spots on the gulf offering good harbors for vessels, though they present no 
facilities for settlements ; among which the principal is the BayofMulege, 
near the latitude of 27i degrees. 

On the west, or Pacific, side of the peninsula no settlement has ever 
been formed or attempted by a civilized nation. This coast offers many 
excellent harbors, but the want of fresh water in their vicinity must ever 
prove an effectual obstacle to their occupation. The principal harborg 
are, the Bay of La Magdalena, in latitude of 25 degrees, which is separated 
from the ocean by the long island of Santa Margarita, and appears to 
stretch much farther inland than had been supposed ; the Bay of Sebas- 
tian Vizcaino, under the 2Sth parallel, east of the Isle of Cedars; Port 
San Bartolome, called Turtle Bay by the British and American traders , 
and Port San duintin, an excellent harbor, with fresh water near it, in lat- 
itude of 30 degrees 20 minutes, called by the old Spanish navigators the 
Port of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, which was rediscovered in 1800 by 
Captain O'Kean, a fur-trader from Boston. At the distance of a hundred 
and twenty miles from this coast, under the parallel of 28 degrees 45. 
minutes, is the small, rocky island of Guadelupe, the existence of which, 
after it had been denied by many navigators, has been ascertained. 

Northward from the peninsula, the great westernmost chain of moun- 
tains continues nearly parallel with the Pacific coast, to the 34th degree 
of latitude, under which rises Mount San Bernardin, one of the highest 
peaks in California, about forty miles from the ocean. Farther north, 
the coast turns more to the west, and the space between it and the sum- 
mit line of the mountains becomes wider, so as to exceed eighty miles in 
some places; the intermediate region being traversed by lines of hills, or 
smaller mountains, connected with the main range. The principal of 
these inferior ridges extends from Mount San Bernardin north-westward 
to its termination on the south side of the entrance of the great Bay of 



16 GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 

San Francisco, near the 33th degree of latitude, where it is called the 
San Bruno Mountains. Between this range and the coast run the 
Santa Barbara Mountains, terminating in the north at the Cape of 
Pines, on the south-west side of the Bay of Monterey, near the latitude 
of 36i degrees. 

North of the San Bruno Mountains is the Bolbones ridge, bordering 
the Bay of San Francisco on the east; and still farther in the same 
direction are other and much higher lines of highlands, stretching from 
the great chain, and terminating in capes on the Pacific. 

The southernmost of these regions of continental California, between 
the Pacific and the great westernmost chain of mountains, resembles the 
adjacent portion of the peninsula in climate ; being very hot and dry, 
except during a short time in the winter. Farther north, the wet season 
increases in length, and about the Bay of San Francisco the rains are 
almost constant from November to April, the earth being moistened dur- 
ing the remainder of the year by heavy dews and fogs. Snow and ice are 
sometimes seen in the winter on the shores of this bay, but never farther 
south, except on the mountain-tops. The whole of California is, however, 
subject to long droughts ; thus little or no rain fell in any part of the 
country during 1840 and 1841, in which years the inhabitants were 
reduced to the greatest distress. 

Among the valleys in this part of California are many streams, some 
of which discharge large quantities of water in the rainy season; but no 
river is known to flow through the maritime ridge of mountains from the 
interior to the Pacific, except perhaps the Sacramento, falling into the 
Bay of San Francisco, though several are thus represented on the maps. 
The valleys thus watered afford abundant pasturage for cattle, with which 
they are covered: California, however, contains but two tracts of country 
capable of supporting large numbers of inhabitants, which are, that west 
of Mount San Bernardin, about the 34th degree of latitude, and that sur- 
rounding the Bay of San Francisco and the lower part of the Sacramento; 
and even in these, artificial irrigation would be indispensable to insure 
success in agriculture. 

The earliest settlements in continental California were made by the 
Spaniards, in 1769, immediately after the expulsion of the Jesuits from the 
peninsula. These establishments were at first missionary and military ; 
the charge of converting the natives being committed to the Franciscans, 
while forts and garrisons were placed at various points, for the occupation 
and defence of the country. Towns were subsequently laid out and 
settled, and farms were cultivated, for the most part by natives, under the 
direction of the friars and officers. All these establishments declined 
considerably after the overthrow of the Spanish power, in consequence of 
want of funds, and the diminution of the authority of the priesthood; but, 
on the other hand, the commerce of the country has increased, and many 
vessels, principally from the United States, resort to its ports, bringing 
manufactured articles, in return for which they receive hides, tallow, 
and other raw productions. In 1835, the number of missions was twenty- 
one, and of the towns seven, to which were attached about twenty-three 
thousand persons, mostly of the pure aboriginal race, and many of mixed 
breed. Since that time several missions have been abandoned, while the 
towns have increased in number and population. 

The most southern settlement on the Pacific side of California, and the 



GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 17 

first established by the Spaniards, is San Diego, a small town of three hun- 
dred inhabitants, situated about a mile from the north shore of a bay which 
communicates with the ocean, in the latitude of 32 degrees 41 minutes. 
The bay runs about ten miles eastward into the land, being separated from 
the ocean, in its whole length, by a ridge of sand, and affords entrance to 
vessels of any size, which may anchor safe from all winds within a mile 
of the northern shore. The passage leading into it is defended by for- 
tifications which, if properly armed and manned, might render the harbor 
completely secure from all attacks by sea. The mission stands .about 
seven miles from the town, in a valley, through which a torrent rushes in 
the rainy season. About sixty miles farther north-west is San Juan, a small 
place on an unsafe and inconvenient harbor, in latitude of 33 degrees 27 
minutes; and somewhat farther in the same direction is San Pedro, on a 
bay open to the south-west winds, but sheltered from the north-west. The 
country in the immediate vicinity of these places is sandy and barren, 
yielding little besides grass for cattle; in the interior, however, on the 
north-east, is the wide tract already mentioned, extending to Mount San 
Bernardin, which is said to be of great fertility wherever it is properly 
irrigated, producing wheat, vines, olives, and fruits of various kinds. In 
this tract, at the distance of thirty miles north from San Pedro, stands 
Pueblo de los Angeles, the largest town in California, containing a thou- 
sand inhabitants ; and near it the mission of San Gabriel, the vineyards 
of which formerly yielded a large supply of good wine. 

From Port San Pedro the Californian coast runs westward, more than a 
hundred miles, to Cape Conception, a point situated in latitude of 34 de- 
grees 22 minutes, as much dreaded by navigators, on account of the 
violence and frequency of the storms in its vicinity, as Cape Hatteras, 
near the same parallel on the eastern side of the continent. Opposite this 
part of the coast are the Islands of Santa Barbara, eight in number, of 
which four, called Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Santa Catalina, and San 
Clemente, contain from twenty to fifty square miles of surface each ; the 
others being mere rocks. Between the Island of Santa Cruz and the 
main land on the north is the channel of Santa Barbara, on the north 
side of which, the town, fort, and mission of Santa Barbara are situated, 
in a sandy plain, stretching from the coast to the Santa Barbara range of 
mountains. The harbor is an open roadstead, sheltered from the north 
and west winds, which there prevail from November to March, but 
affording no protection against the south-westerly storms, which are so vio- 
lent and frequent during the remainder of the year. 

At the distance of a hundred miles north of Cape Conception, the Santa 
Barbara Mountains end, as already said, in a point called the Cape of 
Pines, (Punta de Pinos,) in latitude of 36 degrees 37 minutes; between 
which and another point, twenty-four miles farther north, called Cape 
New Year, (Punta de Nuevo Ano,) is included the extensive Bay of Mon- 
terey. This bay lies in an indentation of the coast, almost semi-circular; 
its southernmost part is, however, separated from the ocean by the point 
of land ending at the Cape of Pines, and thus forms a cove, near the 
southernmost part of which stands the town of Monterey, or San Carlos 
de Monterey, the seat of government of California. The town is a 
wretched collection of mud-built houses, containing about two hundred 
inhabitants; the castle, as it is termed, and the fort on the Cape of Pines, 
are merely mud walls, behind which are a few old guns, all ineffective. 
3 



18 GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 

The mission, situated three miles south of the town, in a valley, through 
which runs the torrent of San Carmelo, embraces extensive buildings, 
but is in a ruinous state, and nearly deserted. 

The surrounding country possesses a good soil and a delightful cli- 
mate, and might be rendered very productive by irrigation, for which two 
small rivers, flowing from the mountains, offer abundant supplies of water 
at all times ; it, however, remains uncultivated, and scarcely any article of 
food is obtained from it, except the meat of the cattle covering the valleys. 
From.the eastern shore of the bay, a sandy plain extends eastward to the 
foot of the San Bruno Mountains, traversed by a river called the Buena- 
ventura, which is erroneously represented, on some maps, as flowing 
through the great ridge from the interior countries. North of the bay, at 
a little distance from Cape New Year, is the mission of Santa Cruz, to 
which vessels commonly resort for water and provisions; and farther in 
the interior, beyond the San Bruno range, is the town of Branciforte, one 
of the largest in California. 

The next remarkable headland on the coast north of the Bay of Mon- 
terey is that called Punta de los Reyes, or the Cape of Kings, composed of 
high white cliffs, projecting into the Pacific, under the 38th degree of lat- 
itude ; when seen from the north or the south, it presents the appearance 
of an island, being connected with the main land on the east by low 
ground. A few miles south of this point are two clusters of rocky islets, 
called Farellones, immediately east of which. 

The Bay of San Francisco joins the Pacific by a passage or channel 
two miles wide, and three in length, under the parallel of 37 degrees 
55 minutes, nearly in the same latitude with the entrance of Chesapeake 
Bay, and the Straits of Gibraltar. From this passage the bay extends 
northward and southward, surrounded by ranges of high hills, and con- 
taining some of the most convenient, beautiful, and secure harbors, on 
the Pacific, and, indeed, in the world. 

The southern branch of the bay extends south-eastward about thirty miles, 
terminating in that direction in a number of small arms, receiving streams 
from the hills. Its average breadth is about twelve miles ; and it may be 
considered as occupying the bottom, or northern extremity of a long 
valley, included between the San Bruno Mountains on the west and the 
Bolbones ridge on the east. Farther up this valley, in the south, are 
the large Lakes of Tule, which communicate with each other and with 
the bay during the rainy season, and are said to be surrounded by a 
delightful country, containing a numerous population of natives. 

The northern branch of the bay becomes contracted, near the entrance, 
into a strait, beyond which is a basin, ten miles in diameter, called the 
Bay of vSan Pablo. A second passage, called the Strait of Carquines, 
connects this basin with another, containing many islands, into which 
empty the Sacramento, and one or two smaller streams. The Sacramento 
rises among the mountains of the great westernmost chain, near the 41st 
degree of latitude, and is said to receive a branch flowing through those 
mountains from the east. Thence it flows, in a very tortuous course, about 
three hundred miles, southward, to its entrance in the Bay of San Fran- 
cisco, being navigable by small vessels to the distance of more than one 
hundred miles from the bay. The lower part of the country traversed by 
it is an alluvial plain, parts of which are prairies, while others are cov- 
ered with forests of noble trees, principally oaks, and the whole appears to 



GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 19 

be well adapted for the support of a large population. The other rivers 
fallino' into this basin are the San Joaquin from the south, and the Jesus 
Maria from the north, both inconsiderable streams. 

In the country around this bay, settlements and cultivation have ad- 
vanced more than in any other part of California. Near its southern ex- 
tremity are the town of San Jose and the mission of Santa Clara, in a 
delightful region, producing grains and fruits of various kinds in pro- 
fusion, and affording pasture to numerous herds of cattle. On the 
northern branch are the missions of San Raefael, and San Francisco 
Solano; and many small establishments for farming or grazing have been 
formed at other points. The town, mission, and fort of San Francisco, 
are all situated near the south side of the passage connecting the bay 
with the Pacific, on a plain at the termination of the San Bruno Moun- 
tains. The principal anchorage for vessels is a cove a few miles south 
of the entrance-passage, between the western shore of the bay and the 
Island of Yerba Buena, where a settlement has been commenced by the 
English and Americans, who conduct nearly all the trade of that part 
of California. 

Near Cape de los Reyes, on the north, is the entrance of the Bay of 
Bodega, which thence extends northward and southward, a few miles in 
each direction. On the shore of the northern branch, the Russians, in 
ISI'2, formed an establishment, chiedy with the view of supplying their 
settlements farther north with grain and meat; and some years after- 
wards, another, called Ross, was made by the same nation, on the coast 
of the Pacific, thirty miles north of Bodega, in latitude of 38 degrees 33 
minutes, near the mouth of a small stream, named by them the Slavinka 
Ross. In 1838, each place contained a stockaded fort, enclosing maga- 
zines and dwellings for the officers, and surrounded by other buildings, 
among which were mills, shops for smiths and carpenters, and stables for 
cattle ; and in the neighborhood of Bodega, farms were worked, from 
which several thousand bushels of wheat, besides pease, and other 
vegetables, butter, and cheese, were annually sent to the trading posts 
in the north. These establishments proved constant sources of annoy- 
ance to the Spaniards, and to their Mexican successors, who did not, 
however, venture to attempt to remove them by force; in 1841, they 
were abandoned by the Russians, who transferred all their interests in 
that quarter to a company or party composed of citizens of the United 
States, and others, equally determined to resist the authority of Mexico. 

Cape Mendocino, which appears to be the natural point of junction of 
the coasts of California and Oregon, is the most elevated land near the 
Pacific in that quarter. It consists of two high promontories, situated 
about ten miles apart, of which the southern and the most elevated is 
situated under the parallel of 40 degrees 19 minutes, nearly in the same 
latitude with Sandy Hook, at the entrance of the bay of New York ; 
and is believed to be the western termination of the great chain of the 
Snowy Mountains, which forms the southern barrier of the regions 
drained by the Columbia. This cape was formerly much dreaded by 
the Spanish navigators, on account of the storms usually prevailing in 
its vicinity ; but, those fears having passed away, the cape has lost much 
of the respect w'ith which it was regarded by mariners. 

The interior of California, east of the mountains which border the 
coast, is imperfectly known. According to the vague reports of the 



20 GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA. 

Catholic missionaries and American traders, who have traversed it in 
various directions, the northern portion is a wilderness of lofty mountains, 
apparently forming a continuous chain, from the range which borders the 
Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains; and the southern division is a 
desert of sandy plains, and rocky hills, and lakes and marshes, having no 
outlet to the sea. The heat of the sun in the plains is described, by all 
who have experienced it, as most intense ; and from their accounts it 
seems to be certain that this region, with the exception, perhaps, of the 
portion immediately adjacent to the Colorado River, must ever remain 
uninhabited. 

The Colorado seems to be the only outlet of the waters of these terri- 
tories. It is formed near the 41st degree of latitude, by the junction of 
several streams, rising among the Rocky Mountains, of which the prin- 
cipal are the Sids-kadee, or Green River, and the Sandy River : thence 
flowiiicr south-westward, it passes through a range of mountains where its 
course is broken by numerous ledges of rocks, producing falls and rapids ; 
after which it receives the Nabaho, the Jaquesila, the Gila, and other large 
streams from the east, and enters the Gulf of California, under the parallel 
of 32 degrees. The country in the vicinity of this river, for some distance 
from its mouth, is flat, and is overflowed during the rainy season, when 
the quantity of water discharged is very great ; and high embankments 
are thus made by the deposit of the mud on each side, similar to those on 
the Lower Mississippi. How far the Colorado may be ascended by vessels 
from the gulf, is not known : from some accounts, it seems to be navigable 
for three or four hundred miles; while, according to others, on which 
more reliance may be placed, obstacles to the passage of vessels occur 
much nearer to the sea. 

West of the Colorado, between the 40th and the 42d degrees of lati- 
tude, is a great collection of salt water, called the Utah Lake, probably 
the same which appears on the old Spanish maps, under the names of 
Lake Timpanogos and Lake Tegayo. It is fed by several streams, the 
principal of which is the Bear River, entering on the north-east, after a 
long and tortuous course through the mountains. Near the northern- 
most part of this river is an extensive plain of white calcareous earth, on 
the borders of which are several springs of water, called the Soda or 
Beer Springs, highly charged with carbonic acid gas, and one, the temper- 
ature of which is but little below the boiling point. 

Around the Utah Lake are other collections of water, some salt, and 
having no outlet ; others fresh, and communicating either with the great 
lake, or with the Colorado. The principal of these is Ashley's Lake, 
situated about a hundred miles south of the Utah Lake, on the bunks of 
which a fur-trading establishment, called Fort Ashley, was founded by the 
Americans, in 1827; but it has since been abandoned. 

Having thus presented the most remarkable features of California, 
those of Oregon, or the country of the Columbia next adjoining on the 
north, will be described. 



ORE GON. 



Oregon is the name usually applied to the part of the western section 
of America, which is traversed and principally drained by the Columbia 
— from the supposition, no doubt erroneous, that this river was called 
Oregon by the aborigines in its vicinity. 

The political boundaries of Oregon have not as yet been fixed by 
agreement between the parties claiming possession of it. The govern- 
ment of the United States considers them as embracing the whole territory 
west of the Rocky Mountains, from the latitude of 42 degrees to that of 
54 degrees 40 minutes ; the British have, however, refused to acknowl- 
edge the right of the Americans to any portion north of the Columbia 
River. Leaving this political question to be determined hereafter, a view 
will first be presented of 

THE COUNTRY OF THE COLUMBIA. 

This country extends on the Pacific from the vicinity of Cape Mendo- 
cino, five hundred miles, to Cape Flattery, at the entrance of the Strait of 
Fuca ; from the eastern extremity of which strait, distant one hundred 
miles from the ocean, a range of mountains stretches north-eastward, 
about four hundred miles, to the Rocky Mountains, near the 54th degree 
of latitude, separating the waters of the Columbia from those of Frazer's 
River. The Rocky Mountains form the eastern boundary of the Colum- 
bia regions, for about twelve hundred miles, from the 54th to the 42d 
parallels ; and those regions are separated from California, on the south, 
by the Snowy Mountains, which appear to extend continuously from 
the Rocky Mountains, nearly in the course of the 41st parallel, about 
seven hundred miles westward, to the vicinity of the Pacific. It is not easy 
to define these boundaries more exactly, as the directions of the mountain 
chains are not accurately ascertained. The territory included within these 
limits, and drained almost entirely by the Columbia, is not less than four 
hundred thousand square miles in superficial extent; which is more than 
double that of France, and nearly half that of all the states of the Federal 
Union. Its southernmost points are in the same latitudes with Boston 
and with Florence ; while its northernmost correspond with the north- 
ern extremities of Newfoundland, and with the southern shores of the 
Baltic Sea. 

The Pacific coast of this territory extends in a line nearly due north 
from Cape Mendocino to Cape Flattery; in which whole distance there is 
but one harbor, or place of refuge for ships, namely, the mouth of the 
Columbia River, near the 4Gth degree of latitude, and that harbor is very 
frequently inaccessible. 

The shores south of the Columbia are most perilous to navigators at all 
times ; as they are every where steep and rocky, and bordered by shoals 



22 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 

and reefs, on which the waves of the Pacific are driven with fury by the 
prevailing north-west winds. Vessels not drawing more than eight feet 
may, however, enter the Umqua, a small stream falling into the Pacific, 
in the latitude of 42 degrees 51 minutes, immediately north of a remark- 
able promontory called Cape Orford, probably the Cape Blanco of the old 
Spanish navigators. Small vessels may also find anchorage in a cove or 
recess of the coast, named by the Spaniards Port Trinidad, under the 
parallel of 41 degrees 3 minutes, about forty miles north of Cape Mendo- 
cino, and in some other spots; but no place on this coast can be said to 
offer protection to vessels against winds or waves. 

North of the Columbia, the coast is less beset by dangers ; and it offers, 
immediately under the 47th parallel, one good port, for small vessels, 
which was discovered in May, 1792, by Captain Gray, of Boston, and 
named by him Bulfincli's Harbor, though it is more commonly called 
Gray's Harbor, and is frequently represented on English maps as Whid- 
bey's Bay. The only other spot worthy of particular notice on this part 
of the coast is Destruction Island, near the continent, in latitude of 47^ 
degrees, so called by the captain of an Austrian trading ship in 1787, 
in consequence of the murder of some of his men by the natives of 
the adjacent country. 

The Strait of Fuca is an arm of the sea separating a great island from 
the continent on the south and east, to which much interest was for some 
time attached, from the supposition that it might be a channel connecting 
the Atlantic with the Pacific north of America. It extends from the 
ocean eastward about one hundred miles, varying in breadth from ten to 
thirty miles, between the 48th and the 49th parallels of latitude ; thence 
it turns to the north-west, in which direction it runs, first expanding into 
a long, wide bay, and then contracting into narrow and intricate passages 
among islands, three hundred miles farther, to its reunion with the Pacific, 
under tlie 51st parallel. From its south-eastern extremity, a great gulf, 
called Admiralty Inlet, stretches southward into the continent more than 
one hundred miles, dividing into many branches, of which the principal 
are Hood's Canal, on the west, and Puget's Sound, the southernmost, 
extending nearly to the 47th parallel. This inlet possesses many excel- 
lent harbors; and the country adjacent, being delightful and productive, 
will, there is every reason to believe, in time become valuable, agricul- 
turally, as well as commercially. There are many other harbors on the 
Strait of Fuca, of which the principal are Port Discovery, near the 
entrance of Admiralty Inlet, said by Vancouver to be one of the best in 
the Pacific, and Poverty Cove, called Port Nunez Gaona by the Span- 
iards, situated a few miles east of Cape Flattery. That cape, so named 
by Cook, is a conspicuous promontory in the latitude of 48 degrees 27 
minutes, near which is a large rock, called Tatooche's Island, united to the 
promontory by a rocky ledge, at times partially covered by water. The 
shore between the cape and Admiralty Inlet is composed of sandy cliffs 
overhanging a beach of sand and stones ; from it the land gradually rises 
to a chain of mountains, stretching southwardly along the Pacific to the 
vicinity of the Columbia, the highest point of which received, in 1788, the 
name of Mount Olympus. 

The interior of this part of America is, as already said, traversed by 
many great ranges of mountains, running generally almost parallel with 
each other, and with the coast : before describing them, however, it will 



GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 23 

be convenient to present a general view of the Columbia River and its 
branches. 

The Columbia enters the Pacific Ocean between two points of land, 
seven miles apart — Cape Disappointment on the north, and Cape Adams 
on the south, of which the former is in the latitude of 46 degrees 19 
minutes, (corresponding nearly with Quebec, in Canada, and Geneva, in 
Switzerland,) and in longitude of 47 degrees west from Washington, or 
124 degrees west from Greenwich. The main river is formed, at the 
distance of two hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, by the union of 
two large streams, one from the north, which is usually considered as the 
principal branch, and the other, called the Sahaptin, or Snake, or Lewis's 
River, from the south-east. 'JMiese two great confluents receive, in their 
course, many other streams, and they thus collect together all the waters 
flowing from the western sides of the Rocky Mountains, between the 42d 
and the 54th parallels of latitude. 

The northern branch of the Columbia rises in the Rocky Mountains, 
near the 53d degree of latitude. One of its head-waters, the Canoe 
River, runs from a small lake, situated in a remarkable cleft of the great 
chain, called the Punch Bowl, at the distance of only a few feet from 
another lake, whence flows the westernmost stream of the Athabasca 
River, a tributary to the Mackenzie, emptying into the Arctic Sea. This 
cleft appears to be the only practicable pass in the mountains north of the 
49th degree of latitude, and through it is conducted all the trade of 
British subjects between the territories on either side of the ridge. It ia 
described, by those who have visited it, as presenting scenes of the most 
terrific grandeur, being overhung by the highest peaks in the dividing 
range, of which one, called Mount Brown, is not less than sixteen thousand 
feet, and another. Mount Hooker, exceeds fifteen thousand feet, above the 
ocean level. 

At a place called Boat Encampment, near the 52d degree of latitude. 
Canoe River joins two other streams, the one from the north, the other, 
the largest of the three, running along the base of the Rocky Mountains, 
from the south. The river thus formed, considered as the main Colum- 
bia, takes its course nearly due south, through defiles, between lofty 
mountains, being generally a third of a mile in width, but, in some 
places, spreading out into broad lakes, for about three hundred miles, to the 
latitude of 48i degrees, where it receives the Flatbow or M'Gillivray's 
River, a large branch, flowing, also, from the Rocky Mountains on the 
east. A little farther south, the northern branch unites with the Clarke 
or Flathead River — scarcely inferior, in the quantity of water supplied, to 
the other. The sources of the Clarke are situated in the dividing rano-e, 
near those of the Missouri and the Yellowstone, whence it runs north- 
ward, along the base of the mountains, and then westward, forming, under 
the 48th parallel, an extensive sheet of water, called the KullerspelmLake, 
surrounded by rich tracts of land, and lofty mountains, covered with noble 
trees; from this lake the river issues, a large and rapid stream, and, after 
running about seventy miles westward, it fails into the north branch of 
the Columbia, over a ledge of rocks. From the point of union of these 
two rivers, the Columbia turns towards the west, and rushes through a 
ridge of mountains, where it forms a cataract called the Chaudiere or 
Kettle Falls. Continuing in the same direction eighty miles, between the 
48th and the 49th parallels, it receives, in succession, the Spokan from 



24 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 

the south, and the Okinagan from the north, and, from the mouth of the 
latter, it pursues a southward course for one hundred and sixty miles, to 
its junction with the great southern branch, near the 47th degree of 
latitude. 

Of the Sahaptin, or Lewis, or Snake River, the great southern branch 
of the Columbia, the farthermost sources are situated in the deep valleys 
or holes of the Rocky Mountains, near the 42d degree of latitude, within 
short distances of those of the Yellowstone, the Platte, and the Colorado. 
The most eastern of these head-waters, considered as the main river, 
issues from Pierre's Hole, between the Rocky Mountains and a parallel 
range called the Tetons, from three remarkable peaks, resembling teats, 
which rise to a great height above the others. Running westward, this 
stream unites successively with Henry's Fork from the north, and the 
Portneuf from the south. Some distance below its junction with the 
latter, the Lewis enters the defile between the Blue Mountains on the 
west, and another rocky chain, called the Salmon River Mountains, on the 
east, and takes its course north-westward, for about six hundred miles, to 
its union with the northern branch, receiving many large streams from 
each side. The principal of these influent streams are the Malade or 
Sickly River, the Boise or Reed's River, the Salmon River, and the 
Kooskooskee, from the east, and the Malheur and Powder River, from the 
Blue Mountains, on the west. 

Of these two great branches of the Columbia, and the streams which 
fall into them, scarcely any portion is navigable by the smallest vessels for 
more than thirty or forty miles continuously. The northern branch is 
much used by the British traders for the conveyance of their furs and 
merchandise, by means of light canoes, which, as well as their cargoes, 
are carried by the boatmen around the falls and rapids so frequently inter- 
rupting their voyage. The Lewis River and its streams offer kw ad- 
vantages in this way ; as they nearly all rush, in their whole course, through 
deep and narrow chasms, between perpendicular rocks, against which a 
boat would be momentarily in danger of being dashed by the current. 

From the point of junction of these two great branches, the course of 
the Columbia is generally westward to the ocean. A little below that 
point, it receives the Walla-Walla, and then, in succession, the Umatalla, 
John Day's River, and the Chutes or Falls River, all flowing from the 
south, and some others, of less size, from the north. Near the mouth of 
the Falls River, eighty miles below the Walla-Walla, are situated the 
Falls, or Chutes, as they are called, of the Columbia, where the great 
stream enters a gap in the Far-West range of mountains. Four miles 
farther down are the Dalles, or rapids formed by the passage, of the 
waters between vast masses of rock ; and thirty miles below these are the 
Cascades, a series of falls and rapids extending more than half a mile, 
at the foot of which the tides are observable at the distance of a hundred 
and twenty miles from the Pacific. 

A few miles below the Cascades, a large river, called the Willamet, 
(the Multonomah of Lewis and Clarke,) enters the Columbia from the 
south, by two branches, between which is an extensive island, named 
Wappatoo Island, from an edible root, so called, found growing in abun- 
dance upon it. Twenty-five miles from the mouth of this river are its 
falls, where all its waters are precipitated over a ledge of rocks more 
than forty feet in height. Beyond this point, the Willamet has been 



GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. ii5 

traced about two hundred miles, in a tortuous course, through a narrow 
but generally fertile valley, to its sources in the Far-West chain of 
mountains, near the 43d degree of latitude. In this valley were formed 
the earliest agricultural settlements by citizens of the United States west 
of the Rocky Mountains ; and, from all accounts, it appears to present 
greater advantages of soil and climate than any other part of the country 
drained by the Columbia. 

Descending the Columbia forty miles from the lower mouth of the Wil- 
lamet, we find a small stream, called the Cowelitz, entering it from the 
north ; and, thirty miles lower down, the great river, which is nowhere 
above more than a mile wide, expands to the breadth of four, and, in 
some places, of seven, miles, before mingling its waters with those of the 
Pacific ; it, however, preserves its character as a river, being rapid in its 
current, and perfectly fresh and potable, to within a league of the ocean, 
except during very dry seasons and the prevalence of violent westerly 
winds. 

The Columbia may generally be ascended, by ships of three or four 
hundred tons, nearly to the foot of its cascades : the navigation, especially 
of the lower part, is, however, at all times, diflicult and dangerous, in 
consequence of the number and the variability of the shoals; and it is 
only in fine weather that vessels can with safety enter or leave its mouth, 
whicli is guarded by a line of breakers, extending across from each of the 
capes. 

The other rivers which drain the parts of this territory near the sea 
are numerous, but generally small, the majority being merely brooks, 
which disappear during the dry season. The Umqua, near the 43d degree 
of latitude, and the Chekelis, which empties into Bulfinch's Harbor, are 
the principal of those streams; but neither of them offers any facilities for 
commercial communication. 

Of the chains of mountains traversing Oregon from north to south, 
the most remarkable is the westernmost, for which the name of Far-West 
Mountains has been here proposed, running northward from California 
at the distance of eighty or a hundred miles from the Pacific coast. 
Under the 49th parallel, where the base of the chain is washed by the 
easternmost waters of the Strait of Fuca, it is divided into three 
distinct ridges, one of which stretches north-east, to the Rocky Moun- 
tains, separating the waters of the Columbia from those of Fraser's 
River ; another overhangs the sea-coast north-westward ; and the islands of 
the North-West Archipelago, which mask the shore of the continent from the 
49th to the 5Sth parallels, may be considered as a third ridge, extending 
through the sea. The principal peaks of this chain, in Oregon, are Mount 
Baker, near the 49th parallel. Mount Rainier, under the 47th, and Mount 
St. Helen's, the highest of the range, which rises, probably, not less than 
fifteen thousand feet above the ocean level, due east of the mouth of the 
Columbia. South of that river are Mount Hood, near the 45th parallel ; 
Mount Jeiferson, so named by Lewis and Clarke, under the 44th ; Mount 
Shasty, near the 43d ; and Mount Jackson, a stupendous pinnacle, in the 
latitude of 41 degrees 40 minutes, which has been also called Mount Pitt 
by the British traders. Some of these peaks are visible from the ocean, 
particularly Mount St. Helen's, which serves as a mark for vessels entering 
the Columbia ; when seen from the highlands farther east, they present 
one of the grandest spectacles in nature. This chain is entirely of vol- 
4 



26 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 

canic formation ; and it must contain active volcanoes, as there are no 
other means of accounting for the showers of ashes which occasionally 
fall in many parts of Oregon, particularly in the vicinity of Mount St. 
Helen's. The latest of these supposed eruptions took place in 1834. 

The country between the Pacific coast and this westernmost chain 
consists, like the part of California similarly situated, of ranges of lower 
mountains, separated by narrow valleys, generally running parallel to the 
great chain, and to the coast. Its superficial extent may be estimated at 
about forty-five thousand square miles,* of which a small proportion only, 
not exceeding an eighth, is fit for cultivation. The climate, like that of 
California, is warm and dry in summer ; very little rain falling between 
April and November, though it is violent, and almost constant, during the 
remainder of the year. Snow is rarely seen in the valleys, in which the 
ground frequently continues soft and unfrozen throughout the winter. 
The soil, in some of these valleys, is said to be excellent for wheat, rye, 
oats, peas, potatoes, and apples ; fifteen bushels of wheat being sometimes 
yielded by a single acre. Indian corn, which requires both heat and 
moisture, does not succeed in any part of Oregon. Hogs live and mul- 
tiply in the woods, where an abundance of acorns is to be found ; the 
cattle also increase, and it is not generally necessary for them to be 
housed or fed in the winter. The hills and the flanks of the great moun- 
tains are covered with timber, which grows to an immense size. A fir, 
near Astoria, measured forty-six feet in circumference at ten feet from the 
earth ; the length of its trunk, before giving off a branch, was one hun- 
dred and fifty-three feet, and its whole height not less than three hundred 
feet. Another tree, of the same species, on the banks of the Umqua 
River, is fifty-seven feet in girth of trunk, and two hundred and sixteen 
feet in length below its branches. " Prime sound pines," says Cox, 
" from two hundred to two hundred and eighty feet in height, and from 
twenty to forty feet in circumference, are by no means uncommon." The 
land on which these large trees grow is good ; but the labor of clearing 
it would be such as to prevent any one from undertaking the task, until 
all the other spots, capable of cultivation, should have been occupied. 
From the peculiarities of climate above mentioned, it is probable that this 
country cannot be rendered very productive without artificial irrigation, 
which appears to be practicable only in a few places ; and that conse- 
quently the progress of settlement in it will be much slower than in the 
Atlantic regions of the continent, where this want of moisture does not 
exist. 

About one hundred and fifty miles east of the Far-West Mountains is 
another chain, called the Blue Mountains, stretching from the Snowy 
Mountains northward to the 47th degree of latitude, and forming the 

* The Strait of Fuea, which bounds this region on the north, is in latitude of 48^ 
degrees ; and, assuming the 42d parallel as the southern limit of the territory, its 
extreme length is 6;^ degrees, or less than four hundred and fifty miles English. Its 
breadth — that is, the distance between the Pacific shore and the great chain of 
mountains which forms the eastern boundary of this region — does not average 
a hundred miles ; and, by multiplying these two numbers, forty-five thousand square 
English miles appears as the superficial extent of the westernmost region of Oregon. 
It has, however, been gravely asserted and repeated on the floor of the Congress of 
the United States, that the valley of the Willamet, which is but an inconsiderable 
portion of this region, contains not less than sixty thousand square miles of the finest 
Land ; and many other assertions, equally extravagant, have been made, and are be- 
lieved, respecting the vast extent of land in the country of the Columbia, superior in 
quality to any in the United States. 



GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 27 

western wall of the valley of the Lewis, the great southern branch of the 
Columbia. North of the 47th degree are other ridges, which appear 
to be continuations of the Blue Mountains ; but they are less dehned, 
and are distinguished by other names. The region between the Blue and 
the Far-West Mountains embraces several tracts of country comparatively 
level, and some valleys wider than those of the Pacific region ; the soil is, 
however, less productive, and the climate less favorable for agriculture, 
than in the places similarly situated nearer the ocean. The most exten- 
sive valleys are those traversed by the streams flowing into the Columbia 
from the south, between the Far-West range and the Blue Mountains, 
particularly the Walla-Walla, and the Falls or Chutes Rivers: the plains, 
as they are called, though they are rather tracts of undulating country, 
are on both sides of the northern branch of the Columbia, between the 
46th and the 49th parallels of latitude. The surface of the plains consists 
generally of a yellow, sandy clay, covered with grass, small shrubs, and 
prickly pears ; in the valleys farther south, the soil is somewhat better, 
containing less of sand and more of vegetable mould, and they give sup- 
port to a few trees, chiefly sumach, cotton-wood, and other soft and use- 
less woods. The climate of this whole region is more dry than that of 
the country nearer the Pacific ; the days are warm, and the nights cool ; 
but the want of moisture in the air prevents the contrast of temperature 
from being injurious to health, and the country is represented, by all who 
have had the opportunity of judging by experience, as being of extraordi- 
nary salubrity. The wet season extends from November to April ; but 
the rains are neither frequent nor abundant, and they never occur at any 
other period of the year. In the southern valleys there is little snow ; 
farther north it is more common, but it seldom lies long, except on the 
heights. Under such circumstances, it will be seen that little encourage- 
ment is offered for the cultivation of this part of Oregon. On the other 
hand, the plains and valleys appear to be admirably adapted for the 
support of cattle, as grass, either green or dry, may be found at all times, 
within a short distance, on the bottom lands or on the hill sides. The 
want of wood must also prove a great obstacle to settlement, as this indis- 
pensable article can only be procured from a great distance up the north 
branch of the Columbia, or from the Pacific region, with which the 
passages of communication through the mountains are few and difficult. 
The country farther east, between the Blue Mountains and the Rocky 
Mountains, appears to be, except in a very few small detached spots, ab- 
solutely uninhabitable by those who depend on agriculture for subsistence. 
It is, in fact, a collection of bare, rocky mountain chains, separated by 
deep gorges, through which flow the streams produced by the melting of 
the snows on the summits; for in the lower grounds rain seldom falls at 
any time. On the borders of the Lewis, and of some of the streams 
falling into it, are valleys and prairies, producing grass for cattle ; but all 
the attempts to cultivate the esculent vegetables have failed, chiefly, as it 
is believed, from the great difference in the temperature between the day 
and the succeeding night, especially in the summer, which is commonly 
not less than thirty, and often exceeds fifty, degrees of Fahrenheit's ther- 
mometer.* North of the 48th parallel, the climate is less dry, and the 

* The thermometer was seen by Wyeth, at Fort Hall, on the Lewis, near the 43d 
parallel of latitude, at the freezing point in the morning, and at ninety-two degrees of 
Fahrenheit, in tiie middle of a day in August. Frosts occur at this place in nearly 
every montli in the year. 



28 GEOGKAPHY OF OKEGON. 

bases of the mountains are covered with wood; but the temperature in 
most places is too cold for the production of any of the useful grains or 
garden vegetables. The parts of this region which appear to be the most 
favorable for agriculture, are those adjacent to the Clarke River, and 
particularly around the Kullerspelm, or Flathead Lake, where the hills 
are well clothed with oaks, elms, cedars, and pines, and the soil of the 
low grounds is of good quality. 

New Caledonia is the name given by the British traders to the country 
extending north and west of the Columbia regions, to the 56th parallel of 
latitude. It is a sterile land of snow-clad mountains, tortuous rivers, and 
lakes frozen over nearly two thirds of the year ; presenting scarcely a 
single spot in which any of the vegetables used as food by civilized people 
can be produced. The waters, like those of the country farther south, 
however, abound in fish, which, with berries, form the principal support 
of the native population. The largest lakes are the Babine, comnmni- 
cating with the ocean by Simpson's River, and Stuart's, Q,uesnel's, and 
Eraser's Lakes, the outlet of all which is Eraser's River, a long but shal- 
low stream, emptying into the Strait of Fuca at its eastern extremity. 
The coast of this country is very irregular in outline, being penetrated by 
many bays and inlets, running up from the sea among the mountains 
which border that side of the continent ; between it and the open Pa- 
cific lie the islands of the North-West Archipelago, which will be here 
described. 

The North-West Archipelago is a remarkable collection of islands, 
situated in, and nearly filling a recess of the American coast, about seven 
hundred miles in length, and eighty or one hundred in breadth, which ex- 
tends between the 48th and the 5Sth parallels of latitude; that is to say, 
between the same parallels as Great Britain. These islands are in number 
many thousands, presenting together a surface of not less than fifty thou- 
sand square miles; they are, however, with the exception of nine or ten, 
very small, and the greater part of them are mere rocks. The largest 
islands are all traversed, in their longest direction, from south-east to north- 
west, by mountain ridges; and the whole archipelago may be considered 
as a range connecting the Far-West mountains of Oregon with the great 
chain farther north, of which Mounts Fairweather and St. Elias are the 
most prominent peaks. 

The coasts of these islands are, like those of the continent in their 
vicinity, very irregular in outline, including numerous bays and inlets ; 
and the channels between them are, with one exception, narrow and 
tortuous. These coasts and channels were minutely surveyed, during the 
period from 1785 to 1795, by navigators of various nations, chiefly with 
the view of discovering some northern passage of communication between 
the Pacific and the Atlantic ; and the true geographical character of the 
islands, which had previously been regarded as parts of the continent, 
was thus ascertained. The British, under Vancouver, made the most 
complete examination of the archipelago, and bestowed on the islands, 
channels, capes, and bays, a number of names, nearly all drawn from the 
lists of the British royal family, peerage, and parliament, some of which 
still retain their places on maps, though few of them will probably be used 
when those parts of America are occupied by a civilized population. 

Of the interior of the islands little is known ; but from all accounts, 
they are generally rocky and barren. The climate of the southernmost 



GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 29 

islands appears to resemble that of the western region of Oregon, except 
that it is less dry in summer ; farther north, the rainy season increases in 
length, but the accompanying increase in the coldness of the atmosphere 
neutralizes any advantages for cultivation which might be derived from 
the more constant supply of moisture. Wood, however, seems to be 
every where abundant near the coasts ; and this may prove important, as 
the channels of the archipelago offer great facilities for communication 
by steam vessels. 

It has been already said that Russia claims all the coasts and islands 
north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes. The islands south of that 
line which are here considered as attached to Oregon, lie in three groups. 

The southernmost group embraces one large island and an infinite 
number of smaller ones, extending from the 49th parallel to the 51st, and 
separated from the continent, on the south and east, by the channel called 
the Strait of Fuca. The main island received, in 1792, the long and 
inconvenient appellation of Island of Quadra and Vancouver, in virtue of a 
compromise between a British and a Sjjanish commander, each claim- 
ing the merit of having ascertained its insulation. It is the largest in 
the archipelago, and, indeed, on the whole west coast of America, being 
about two hundred and fifty miles in length, by an average breadth of 
forty-five miles. On its south-western side are several large bays contain- 
ing islands, among which are some good ports, formerly much frequented 
by fur traders. The principal of these places is Nootka or King George's 
Sound, opening to the Pacific in the latitude of 49^ degrees, between 
Woody Point, on the north, and Point Breakers, on the south; and offer- 
ing a safe harbor for vessels in Friendly Cove, about eight miles from the 
ocean. Near Nootka, on the west, is another bay, called Clyoquot; far- 
ther in the same direction, at the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, is Nitti- 
nat; and within the strait are several other harbors, generally protected 
by small islands. Nootka Sound was, in 1789, the scene of occurrences 
which gave to it much celebrity, as they first rendered the north-west 
coasts of America the subject of dispute and convention between the 
governments of European nations. 

Oueen Charlotte's Island, so called by the British, or Washington's 
Island, as it was named by the Americans in 1789, forms the centre of 
another group, situated between the latitudes of 52 and 54 degrees, at a 
considerable distance from the continent. The principal island is of tri- 
angular form, and is rather smaller in superficial extent than the Island 
of Q,uadra and Vancouver, though larger than any other in the archipelago. 
Its north-western extremity received from the Spanish navigator Perez, 
who discovered it in 1774, the name of Cape Santa Margarita, but is 
now generally known as Cape North; the north-east end was called by 
the Americans Sandy Point, and afterward, by the Spaniards, Cape Invisi- 
ble; the southern extremity is Cape St. James. The island presents a 
number of bays, affording good harbors, which were first examined, sur- 
veyed, and named, by the American fur traders ; and afterwards received 
from British and Spanish navigators the appellations usually assigned to 
them on maps. The principal of these bays are, on the northern side, 
Hancock's River, the Port Estrada of the Spaniards, near Sandy Point, 
and Craft's Sound, or Port Mazarredo, a little farther w^est ; on. the 
Pacific coast are Port Ingraham, near North Cape, and Magee's Sound, 
in the latitude of 52i^ degrees; on the eastern side of the island are 



30 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 

Skitikis, in latitude of 53 degrees 20 minutes, Cummashawa, a few miles 
farther south, and still farther in the same direction. Port Ucah and Port 
Sturges. Tlie country around some of these places, especially Hancock's 
River and Magee's Sound, is described by the American fur traders as 
fertile and beautiful, and enjoying a milder climate than any other parts 
of the north-west coasts. 

The Princess Royal's, Burke's, and Pitt's Islands form a third division 
of the North- West Archipelago, lying near to each other and to the con- 
tinent, immediately east of Q,ueen Charlotte's Island. They are all small 
and rocky, and nothing worthy of note appears in the accounts of them. 

To the aboriginal inhabitants of Oregon it would be inconsistent with 
the plan of this work to devote much attention. They are all savages; 
and they make no figure in the history of the country, over the destinies 
of which they have not exerted, and probably never will exert, any influ- 
ence. The principal tribes are the Clatsops and Chenooks, occupying 
the country on each side of the Columbia, near its mouth ; the Klamets 
and Killamucks, of the Umqua; the Classets, on the Strait of Fuca; 
the Kootanies, and the Salish or Flatheads, of the country about the 
northern branches of the Columbia, and the Shoshones, the Sahaptins 
or Nez-perces, the Kayouses, Walla-Wallas, and Chopunnish, who rove 
through the regions of the Lewis branch. These tribes differ in habits 
and disposition only so far as they are affected by the mode of life which 
the nature of the country occupied by them respectively compels them to 
adopt ; the people of the sea-coasts, who venture out upon the ocean, and 
attack the whale, being generally much bolder and more ferocious than 
those of the middle country, who derive their subsistence by the quiet 
and unexciting employments of fishing in the river and digging for roots. 
Among the peculiar habits of some of the tribes should be mentioned 
that of compressing the heads of their infants by boards and bandages, so 
as materially to alter their shape ; which induced the discoverers of the 
country to apply to those people the name of Flathead Indians. This 
custom appears to have prevailed chiefly among the tribes of the lower 
Columbia, and but little among those dwelling on the northern branches 
of the river, to whom the appellation of Flatheads is, however, at present 
confined. The Blackfeet, so much dreaded by travellers in the middle 
region, chiefly inhabit the country east of the Rocky Mountains, on the 
Yellowstone, and the Missouri above its falls, and annually make in- 
roads upon the Shoshones and the Chopunnish, whom they rob of their 
horses, their only wealth. The principal tribes in the country north of the 
Columbia regions, are the Chilcotins and the Talcotins, between whom 
the most deadly hostility subsists. The natives of the North-West Ar- 
chipelago are the most cunning and ferocious of all these savages; par- 
ticularly those of the vicinity of Nootka, who appear also to be the most 
intelligent. The number of the aborigines of all those territories cannot 
be ascertained, but it is supposed not to exceed thirty thousand, and is 
every where diminishing. 

Among these people, missionaries of various Christian sects have long 
been laboring with assiduity, though, as it would seem, from all accounts, 
with little advatitage. The Roman Catholics have made the greatest 
number of converts, if we assume the reception of baptism as the test 
of conversion; whole tribes submitting at once, on the first summons, to 
the rite. The Methodists and Presbyterians employ themselves chiefly ia 



GEOGRAPHY OP OREGON, 31 

imparting a knowledge of tlie simplest and most nseful arts, and have 
thus induced some of the natives to engage regularly in agricultural pur- 
suits; but the poverty of the soil generally renders their efforts in this 
way unavailing. The last-mentioned missionaries also endeavor to con- 
vey religious and literary instruction to the Indians through the medium 
of their own languages, into which books have been translated and 
printed in the country. Perhaps it would be better to teach the natives 
to speak and read English ; but the other system has been generally 
adopted by American missionaries in all parts of the world. 

The civilized inhabitants of Oregon are, as already mentioned in the 
General View, either citizens of the IJnited States or servants of the 
British Hudson's Bay Company : the latter body enjoying, by special 
grant from the government, the use of all the territories claimed by Great 
Britain west of the Rocky Mountains, as well as the protection of British . 
laws, in virtue of an act of Parliament; whilst the citizens of the United/ 
States remain independent of all authority and jurisdiction whatever. 

The establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company have been, until 
recently, devoted exclusively to the purposes of the fur trade: but, within 
a few years past, several farms have been laid out and worked, under the 
direction of the agents of the company ; and large quantities of timber 
are cut, and salmon are taken and cured, for exportation to the Russian 
possessions, to Mexico, and to the Sandwich Islands. The furs are ob- 
tained partly by hunters and trappers, in the regular service of the com- 
pany, but chielly by trade with the Indians of tlie surrounding country ; 
and they are transported from the different establishments in the interior, 
either to Montreal or to York Factory on Hudson's Bay, or to Fort Van- 
couver on the Columbia, whence they are sent in the company's vessels 
to London. The goods for the trade, and the supply of the establish- 
ments, are received in the same manner ; the interior transportation being 
performed almost entirely in boats, on the rivers and lakes, between 
which the articles are carried on the backs of the voyagcurs or boatmen. 
The regular servants of the company, in the territories west of the Rocky 
Mountains, are, a chief factor, two chief traders, and about four hundred 
clerks, traders, voi/oge2i7's, &c. ; besides whom, nearly as many laborers 
from Canada and from Europe are employed on the farms, and Indians 
are occasionally engaged when wanted. The factors, traders, and clerks, 
are, for the most part, Scotchmen or Canadians ; the hunters and other 
regular servants are nearly all half-breeds. The company maintains on 
the Pacific coasts one steamer and six or eight sail vessels, all armed, 
and three large ships conduct the communications between the Columbia 
and London. 

The establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company are generally called 
forts, and are sufficiently fortified to resist any attacks which might be 
expected. Those beyond the Rocky Mountains are in number about 
twenty-two, of which several, including all the largest, are near the coasts. 

Fort Vancouver, the principal of these establishments west of the 
Rocky Mountains, is situated near the north bank of the Columbia, at the 
distance of eighty-two miles in a direct line from its mouth, and about 
one hundred and twenty miles following the course of the stream. The 
fort is simply a large, square, picketed enclosure, containing houses for 
the residence of the factor, traders, clerks, and upper servants of the 
company, magazines for the furs and goods, and workshops of various 



32 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 

kinds; immediately behind it are a garden and orchard, and behind these 
is the farm, of about six hundred acres, with barns and all other necessary 
buiidincrs. West of the fort are the hospital and houses for the voyageurs 
and Indians ; about two miles lower down the river are the dairy and 
piggery, with numerous herds of cattle, hogs, &c. ; and about three miles 
above the fort are water-mills for grinding corn and sawing plank, and 
sheds for curino- salmon. The number of persons usually attached to the 
post is not less than seven hundred, of whom more than half are Indians 
of the country, the others being natives of Great Britain, Canadians, and 
half-breeds. The whole establishment is governed nearly on the plan of 
one of the small towns of Central Europe during the middle ages; the 
stockade fort representing the baronial castle, in which the great digni- 
taries of the company exercise almost absolute authority. 

Fort George, at the distance of ten miles from the Pacific, on the 
south bank of the Columbia, occupies the site of a trading establishment 
called Astoria, formed by the Americans in 1811, which was taken by 
the British during the war in 1813, and, though subsequently restored in 
virtue of the treaty of Ghent, has never since been re-occupied by citizens 
of the United States. The first buildings were destroyed by fire in 1820 ; 
after which, some small houses were erected by the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany on the same spot, where a trader and three or four other persons 
generally reside. Fort Umqua is near the mouth of the Umqua River, 
which enters the Pacific about a hundred and eighty miles south of 
the Columbia, and affords a harbor for small vessels. Fort Nasqually is 
at the mouth of a little river emptying into Puget's Sound, the southern- 
most part of the great bay called Admiralty Inlet, which extends south- 
wardly into the continent from the Strait of Fuca : near it the Hudson's 
Bay Company has large farms, which are said to be in a prosperous 
condition ; this place is also the seat of a Roman Catholic mission, 
under the direction of a bishop in partibus, (the bishop of Juliopolis,) 
whose influence is, no doubt, important to the company, as the majority 
of its servants are of that religion. Fort Langley is at the entrance of 
Fraser's River into the eastern extremity of the Strait of Fuca, in lati- 
tude of 49 degrees 2.5 minutes ; farther north is Fort M'Loughlin, on 
Mil bank Sound, and Fort Simpson, on Douglas Island, in the North- 
West Archipelago, in latitude 54^ degrees. The company has moreover 
made an agreement with the Russians, who claim the coasts and islands 
north of the parallel of .54 degrees 40 minutes, by which the British 
traders enjoy the exclusive use of the coasts of the continent, extending 
from that parallel to Cape Spenser, near the .58th degree; and a post has 
been in consequence established near the mouth of the Stikine, a large 
river emptying into the channel called Prince Frederick's Sound, in the 
latitude of .56 degrees 50 minutes. 

In the interior of the continent, the Hudson's Bay Company has on the 
"Columbia, above its falls, Fort Walla-Walla, or Nez-Perce, on the east 
side of the northern branch, near its confluence with the southern ; Fort 
Okinagan, at the entrance of the Okinagan River into the north or main 
branch; Fort Colville, near the Kettle Falls; and some others, of less 
consequence. On the Lewis, or great southern branch, are Fort Boise, 
at the mouth of the Boiss, or Reed's River, and Fort Hall, at the en- 
trance of the Portneuf North of the Columbia country are Fort Al- 
exandria, on Fraser's River, and others on the lakes, which abound in 



GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 33 

that part of the continent. All these are, however, on a very small scale, 
and seldom contain more th:in two or three clerks or traders, and a few 
Indians or half-breed hunters. 

The citizens of the United States in Oregon, previous to 1843, did not 
probably exceed four hundred in number, nearly all of whom were estab- 
lished as farmers, graziers, or mechanics, in the valley of the Willamet, 
and on the Walla-Walla; very few being engaged in any commercial 
pursuit. Their condition appears to have been prosperous, in conse- 
quence, there is reason to believe, of their industry, economy, and 
morality, rather than of any particular advantages offered by the country. 
The Protestant missionaries reside on the Willamet, at the Falls of the 
Columbia, near Walla-Walla, in the Spokan and Kotanie countries, and 
in some other places, where they labor for their own support, as well as 
for the improvement and conversion of the natives. The first printing 
press, west of the Rocky Mountains, was set up at the Walla-Walla 
mission, in 1839; on it books are now printed from types set up by na- 
tive compositors. The Roman Catholics, from Missouri, have also 
several stations, principally in the regions of the Clarke River, in which 
they appear to be laboring diligently for the advancement of their own 
religion. 

The number of American citizens in Oregon was, however, nearly 
quadrupled, in the latter part of 1843, by the arrival of more than a thou- 
sand persons — men, women, and children — from the Mississippi val- 
ley;* and a still greater mimber went thither in the following year. 
These emigrants will, most probably, likewise establish themselves in 
the Willamet valley, or on the Umqua, in which regions there is a 
sufficiency of good land for the support of more than a hundred thou- 
sand persons; and they will be able at once to obtain the means of 
subsistence, as the majority of them have been doubtless accustomed 
from their childhood to the labors and privations incident to the settle- 
ment of a new country. Few of them will be disposed to fix their 
residence in the territory north of the Columbia, which is claimed by 
Great Britain, until the question of right between that power and the 
United States shall have been definitively determined. 

The trappers and hunters from the United States have been compelled, 
in consequence of the exclusive measures adopted by the Hudson's Bay 
Company, to quit the regions of the Columbia, and confine themselves 
to the north-western part of California, about the head-waters of the 
Colorado River and the Utah Lake. In the sunnner of each year, they 
repair, with the produce of their labors, to certain places of rendezvous, 
where they meet the traders, bringing clothes, hardware, arms, ammu- 
nition, groceries, and other articles, from Missouri ; and an exchange of 
merchandise is effected to the benefit of both parties. The principal ren- 
dezvous is on the banks of the Sidskadee or Green River, one of the con- 
fluents of the Colorado, situated near the western extremity of the great 
gap in the Rocky Mountains, called the South Pass, through which all 
the communications between the regions of the Mississippi on the one 
side, and Oregon and California on the other, are conducted. 

* According to an enumeration made at their encampment on the Big Blue River, 
soon afler their departure from the Missouri, the numi)ers of the emigrants in 1843, 
were 558 males and 442 females, of all ages, making a total of 1000. Thej^ car- 
ried with them 121 wagons, 296 horses, 6!)8 oxen in draught, and 973 loose cattle. 



34 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 

These communications are effected entirely by land; for, although the 
unoccupied territories of the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains, 
are traversed by the Missouri, and its great tributaries the Yellow Stone, 
the Platte, the Kanzas, and the Osage, and further south, by the Arkan- 
sas and Red rivers emptying into the Mississippi, these streams afford 
few facilities, either for travel, or for the transportation of goods. The 
Missouri river is useful for communication with Oregon, no farther up 
than the mouth of the Platte ; and the latter river, though its position and 
course are precisely such as could be desired, is so shallow, and presents 
so many impediments to navigation, that the lightest boat cannot ascend, 
or descend it, without much difficulty, even when its waters are highest. 
To what distance the Arkansas and Red rivers may be ascended by 
boats, is not yet determined; but, it is probable, that the head of naviga- 
tion, of the Arkansas, is nearer to the best passes in the Rocky Moun- 
tains, than the mouths of the Kanzas, or the Platte. 

The town of Independence, in the State of Missouri, near the conflu- 
ence of the Kanzas with the Missouri, is now the usual place of departure, 
and arrival, to and from Oregon, and New Mexico. The route to Ore- 
gon, extends along the Kanzas and its northern branch, called the Re- 
publican Fork, towards the Platte ; then along the main Platte and its 
northern branch, to Fort Laramie, a private fur-trading post, situated at 
the junction of the north branch, with a small stream from the south, 
called Laramie's Fork, seven hundred and fifty miles from Independence. 

From this place, the road, or trail, continues along the Platte, and 
through the Black Hills, an irregular range skirting the Rocky Moun- 
tains, to the south pass in the latter chain, where lie the sources of the 
Platte, distant two hundred and fifty miles from Fort Laramie. A march 
of a few hours through this pass, brings the traveller to the Sandy River, 
a branch of the Green, or Sidskadee River, the main stream of the Colo- 
rado : crossing the Green River, and ascending one of its western tribu- 
taries called Ham's Fork, he thence passes over a small ridge to the Bear 
River, the principal feeder of the Utah Salt Lake ; this he follows, north- 
westward, to the Soda or Beer Springs, and thence, crossing another 
ridge, he reaches the valley of the Portneuf, down which, he makes his 
way to Fort Hall, a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company, at the 
confluence of the Lewis with the Portneuf, two hundred and fifty miles 
from the South Pass, and one thousand two hundred and fifty miles from 
Independence. 

Another route from Independence to the Colorado, has been surveyed 
in 1844, by Lieutenant Fremont during his long and laborious expedition, 
through Oregon and California, of which a Report will soon be published. 
From the manner in which this accomplished officer conducted his sur- 
vey of the valley of the Platte, there is every reason to expect that he will 
throw much light on the geography of those countries, particularly of the 
region between the Utah Lake, and the Bay of San Francisco. 

The route to Fort Hall, presents comparatively few difficulties, and is 
traversed, every summer, by hundreds of wagons. The remainder of the 
journey is attended with many inconveniences ; some, arising from the na- 
ture of the ground, which may, however, be lessened or removed, by the 
application of labor, at certain points ; and others, from the want of 
water and food, for cattle. Travellers, with wagons, generally follow the 
Lewis, from Fort Hall, down to the vicinity of the entrance of the river 



GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 35 

into the Blue Mountains, and thence, go northward, to the upper part of 
the Boise or Reed's River, through tlie valley of which, they regain the 
Lewis, at the Hudson's Bay Company's post of Fort Boise ; there they 
cross the Lewis, and thence, strike over the country, through the beauti- 
ful valley called the Grand Round, to the confluence of the Walla-Walla 
with the main Columbia, five hundred miles from Fort Hall. Those on 
foot, or on horseback, find more direct lines of communication between 
these two places. 

Below the Walla-Walla, the obstacles to the passage of wheel carriages, 
are, at present, such as to preclude the use of them almost entirely; and 
the numerous rapids and whirlpools in the Columbia, render the voyage 
down to the Falls of that river, exceedingly dangerous. Near the termi- 
nation of the cascades, or lowest falls, is Fort Vancouver, distant two 
hundred and fifty miles from the Walla-Walla, and one hundred and 
twenty-five from the Pacific: and six miles below that Fort, is the mouth 
of the Willamet, in the upper part of the valley of which river, the 
American settlements are mostly situated. 

The passage across the Continent, through the British territories, is 
much longer, and more circuitous : it is effected, as already said, chiefly 
in canoes on the rivers and lakes ; the rest of the journey being performed 
on foot, or in some places, on horseback. The traders of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, leaving Fort Vancouver, ascend the Columbia and its 
northern branch, alternately on the river, and along its banks, about eight 
hundred miles, to the Pass in the Rocky Mountains, near the 52d degree 
of latitude. Thence, they cross, by land, five hundred miles, to Edmon- 
ton, on the north branch of the Saskatchawine, which river they descend, 
to Norway House, near the northern extremity of Lake Winnipeg, distant 
not less than twelve hundred miles from Edmonton. From Norway 
House, they go, either to York Factory, on Hudson's Bay, distant about 
eiorht hundred miles, or through Lake Winnipeg, the Lake of the Woods, 
Rainy Lake, Savannah River, and other connecting waters, to J*ort Wil- 
liam, the great depository of the Company, at the north-west extremity of 
Lake Superior, about eight hundred miles from Norway House, and nine 
hundred from Montreal. Another route from the Rocky Mountain gap, 
to Fort William, passes along the south branch of the Saskatchawine, the 
Assinaboin, and the Red River country; but the portages are so much 
longer, that it is little used for transportation of articles across the conti- 
nent. 

Thus it appears that the distance to the Lower Columbia, from the 
frontiers of Canada, is about twelve hundred miles greater than from the 
westernmost point in the States of the American Union. The journey 
through the British territories, is indeed performed at present, in less 
time, by the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, than the caravans 
of men, women and children, from the United States, employ in their 
passage along the Platte, and the Lewis : but the road for the latter will 
be constantly improving, and the journey must annually become less in 
actual distance, and much less laborious and tedious ; whilst the more 
northern route will forever remain in its present condition, scarcely pass- 
able by any, except the hardy and experienced traders, and voyageurs of 
tlie British Company. 



RUSSIAN AMERICA. 



Russia claims, as already said, in virtue of the discoveries and settle- 
ments of her subjects, and of treaties with the United States and Great 
Britain, the whole division of the American continent, and the adjacent 
islands, north of the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes, and west of a 
line drawn from that latitude, northward, along the highlands bordering 
the Pacific Ocean to Mount St. Eiias, and thence due north to the 
Arctic Sea. This power also claims the whole of Asia, extending on the 
Pacific north of the 51st parallel, all the Aleutian Islands, and all the 
Kurile Islands, north of the latitude of 45 degrees 40 minutes. 

Of the parts of America thus claimed by Russia, the islands and the 
coasts of the continent have been explored, and some have been surveyed 
with care; several rivers, also, have been traced to considerable distances 
from their mouths : the interior regions are, however, but little known, 
and, from all accounts, they do not seem to merit the labor and expense 
which would be required for their complete examination. Only small 
portions of the islands are fit for agriculture, or for any purpose useful to 
man, except fishing and hunting ; the remaining territories present to the 
eye nothing but rocks, snow, and ice. 

The exclusive use and government of all the islands and ports of 
America above mentioned are granted by charter from the emperor of 
Russia to a body called the Russian American Trading Company, which 
has established on their coasts a number of forts, settlements, and factories, 
all devoted to the purposes of the fur trade and fishery ; the coast of the 
continent, south-west of the 58th degree of latitude, has, however, been, 
as already mentioned, leased to the Hudson's Bay Company until the 1st 
of June, 1850, at an annual rent, payable in furs. The inhabitants of the 
Kurile, the Aleutian, and the Kodiak Islands are regarded as the immedi- 
ate subjects of the company ; in the service of which, every man, between 
the ages of eighteen and fifty years, may be required to pass at least three 
years. The natives of the country adjoining the two great bays called 
Cook's Inlet and Prince William's Sound, are also under the control of 
this body, and are obliged to pay an annual tax in furs, though they are not 
compelled to enter the regular service. All the other aborigines are con- 
sidered as independent, except that they are allowed to trade only witii the 
Russian American company. By the latest accounts, the number of Rus- 
sian establislunents was twenty-six, all situated south of Bering's Strait. 
The immediate subjects of the company were seven hundred and thirty 
Russians, fourteen hundred and forty-two Creoles, or children of Rus- 
sian fathers by native mothers, and eleven thousand aborigines of the 
Kurile, Aleutian, and Kodiak Islands ; the number of the natives in- 
habiting the other regions cannot be ascertained, but must be very small, 
when compared with the extent of the surface. 

The Russian American territories are politically divided into six 



GEOGRAPHY OF KUS3IAN AMKKICA. 37' 

districts, each of which is under the direction of an agent ; tlie whole 
being superintended by a governor-general, usually an othcer of the 
Russian navy, residing at the capital of the possessions. The furs 
are collected either by persons in the regular service of the company, or as 
taxes from its subjects, or by trade with the independent natives ; and they 
are transported in its vessels to Petropawlowsk in Kamtchatka, or to 
Ochotsk, in Siberia, or, by special permission of the Chinese government, to 
Canton, or to the European ports of Russia ; the supplies being received 
from those places by the same vessels. 

The district of Sitka comprehends the islands of the North-West Ar- 
chipelago, and the coasts of the American continent, northward from 
the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, to Mount St. Elias. The islands 
are six large, and an infinite number of smaller ones, separated from 
each other, and from the main land, by narrow, but generally navigable 
channels. The large islands are those distinguished on English maps 
as Prince of Wales's Island, the southernmost, between which and the 
continent, on the east, are the Duke of York's and the Revillagigedo 
Islands ; farther north, on the ocean, is King George the Third's Ar- 
chipelago, including Baranof's and Tchichagof's Islands; and east of 
these latter are Admiralty and some other islands. 

Opposite the western end of the channel, separating Baranof's from 
Tchichagof's Island, is a small island, consisting of a single and beautiful 
conical peak, rising from the ocean, which received from its Spanish 
discoverers, in 1775, the name of Mount San Jacinto, but is better known 
by the English appellation of Mount Edgecumb ; a narrow passage, called 
Norfolk Sound, separates it from Baranof's Island, on the shore of which 
stands Sitka, or New Archangel, the capital of Russian America. This 
is a small town, of wooden houses, covered mostly with iron, protected, or 
rather overlooked, by batteries, and inhabited by about a thousand per- 
sons, of whom nearly one half are Russians, tlie majority of the others 
being Creoles. The governor's house is large and substantially built, 
and is surmounted by a lighthouse ; the fortifications, which are also of 
wood, are armed by about forty guns: attached to the establishment are 
an extensive arsenal, including a ship-yard, a foundery, and shops for 
various artificers, a hospital, and a church, splendidly adorned in the 
interior. Sitka, moreover, though thus remote from all civilized coun- 
tries, contains several schools, in which the children are instructed at the 
expense of the company, a library of two thousand volumes, a cabinet of 
natural history, and an observatory supplied with the instruments most 
necessary for astronomical and magnetic observations. 

On comparing the results of meteorological observations, it appears 
that the mean temperature of every month of the year, at Sitka, is higher 
than that of any place in America, east of the Rocky Mountains, within 
several degrees of the same latitude. No attempts at cultivation have, 
however, been made there or in any other part of Russian America, except 
at the settlement of Ross, in California, on a scale sufficiently large to 
authorize any opinions as to the agricultural value of the soil. 

The district of Kodiak comprises all the coasts from the North- West 
Archipelago, northward and westward, to the southern extremity of the 
peninsula of Aliaska, with the adjacent islands, as also a portion of the 
coast of the Sea of Kamtcha<ka, on the north-west side of Aliaska. The 
largest island is Kodiak, situated near the east coast of Aliaska, from 



38 GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIAN AMERICA. 

which it is separated by the Strait of Schelikof, and containing, on its 
north-east side, St. Paul's, an inconsiderable place, formerly the capital 
of Russian America. North of Kodiak, an arm of the ocean, called by 
the English Cook's Inlet, and by Russians the Gulf of Kenay, stretches 
northwardly into the continent nearly two hundred miles; east of which, 
and separated from it by a peninsula, is another great bay, called Prince 
William's Sound, or the Gulf of Tschugatsch, containing a number of 
islands; and still farther east is Comptroller's Bay, into which empties 
Copper River, the largest stream flowing from this part of America. 
Each of these bays was minutely examined by Cook, in 1778, and by 
Vancouver, in 1794, while in search of a passage to the Atlantic; and 
several good harbors were thus discovered, on the shores of which the 
Russians have formed trading establishments. 

The most remarkable natural feature of this part of America is, how- 
ever, the great volcanic peak of Mount St. Elias, which rises from the 
shore of the Pacific, under the 61st parallel of latitude, to the height of 
more than seventeen thousand feet above the ocean level. Near it, on the 
south-east, is Mount Fairweather, only two thousand feet less in elevation ; 
and between the two peaks lies Admiralty, or Bering's, or Yakutat Bay, 
where the Russian navigators Bering and Tchirikof are supposed to 
have first anchored on their voyage of discovery from Kamtchatka, 
in 1741. 

The peninsula of Aliaska is a chain of lofty volcanic mountains, 
stretching through the Pacific from the latitude of 59 degrees south-west- 
ward to that of 54 degrees 40 minutes. The most elevated peak, called 
Mount Scheschaldin, is frequently in action, throwing forth large quanti- 
ties of lava and ashes. Near the southern extremity of the peninsula, on 
the east, is the group of small islands, called the Schumagin Islands; and 
from the same extremity, as if in continuation of the peninsula, the Aleu- 
tian Islands extend, at short distances apart, in a line nearly due westward, 
more than six hundred miles, to the vicinity of Kamtchatka. 

The Aleutian Islands include two districts of the Russian American 
possessions. The easternmost and largest islands of the archipelago, 
called the Fox Islands, among which areUnimak, Unalashka, and Umnak, 
and the small group of the Pribulow Islands, lying a little farther north 
and west of Aliaska, form the district of Unalashka. The district of 
Atcha comprises the other islands, which are small, and are divided into 
three groups, called the Rat, the Andreanowsky, and the Commodore 
Islands. These islands are all mountains, rising above the sea, some of 
them, to a great height: only the larger ones are inhabited, or indeed 
habitable ; the others are visited at certain periods by the Russian hunt- 
ers and fishermen, in search of the animals which abound on their shores. 
The principal settlement is Illiluk, on the Bay of Samagoondha, in the 
north-east part of Unalashka, which is also the residence of a bishop of 
the Greek church. 

The northern, or Michaelof, district includes all the territories and 
islands of America, north of Aliaska, bordering on the division of the 
Pacific, called the Sea of Kamtchatka, which extends from the Aleutian 
Islands to Bering's Strait : the only establishments, however, are those 
on the shores of the great gulf of that sea, called Norton's Sound, south 
of the 64th parallel of latitude. The principal of these establishments 
is Fort St. Michael, near Stuart's Island, to which furs, skins, oil, and 



GEOGRAPHY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 39 

ivory tusks, are brought by the Esquimaux and Tchukskies from the 
islands near Bering's Strait and the shores of the Arctic Sea. Several 
expeditions have been recently made by Russian otiicers into the interior 
of these countries, in which two large rivers, the Kwikpak and the 
Kuskokwim, emptying into the sea between the GOth and the 63d de- 
grees of latitude, were traced to great distances from their mouths. 

The part of Asia bathed by the Sea of Kamtchatka, like the opposite 
part of America, is a waste of snow-covered rocks, among which rise 
chains of lofty mountains. The principal of these chains extends south- 
ward through the Pacific from the GOth parallel of latitude, forming the great 
peninsula of Kamtchatka: south of which stretch the Kurile Islands, 
south of these the Japan Islands, and still farther south, the Philip- 
pine Islands ; all forming parts of the same line of volcanoes which 
extends along the west coasts of North America. The only place of 
importance in Kamtchatka is Petropawlowsk, a small town situated on 
the Bay of Avatscha, in the south-east part of the peninsula, in latitude 
of 53 degrees 58 minutes. Near the point where the peninsula joins 
the continent stands another small town, called Ochotsk, on the north- 
ernmost shore of the Gulf of Ochotsk, which separates Kamtchatka from 
the main land on the west. 

The Kurile Islands are twenty-two in number, of which nineteen are 
subject to Russia, and the others to Japan. The Russian Islands form 
one district of the Russian American Company's possessions ; they are 
all small, and of little value, many of them being entirely without springs 
of fresh water. The Russians have but one establishment on them, 
called Semussir, in Urup, the southernmost of the islands, from which 
some seal-skins are annually carried to Petropawlowsk and Ochotsk. 



THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 

These islands, sometimes called the Hawaiian Archipelago, are situ- 
ated in the north-west division of the Pacific, nearly due south of Aliaska, 
and west of the southern extremity of California, at nearly equal distances 
— that is, about two thousand five hundred miles — from each of those 
parts of America, and from the Bay of San Francisco. Their distance 
from Canton is about five thousand miles. They are ten in number, 
extending, in a curved line, about three hundred miles in length, from the 
19th degree of latitude, north-westward, to the 22d : their whole super- 
ficial extent is estimated at six thousand six hundred square miles, and 
the number of their population, by the latest accounts, was about one 
hundred and fifty thousand. 

The south-easternmost of the islands, embracing two thirds of the 
surface, and more than half of the population, of the whole, is Owyhee, 
(or Hawaii, according to the orthography adopted by the American 
missionaries.*) North-west of Owyhee is Mowee, (or Maui,) the second 
in size of the islands, with about twenty thousand inhabitants. Near 
Mowee, on the west, are Tahoorowa, (Kahulawe,) Morokini, (Molokini,) 
Ranai, (Lanai,) and Morotai, (Molokai,) all of them small and unimpor- 
tant. Farther in the same direction is Woahoo, (Oahu,) nearly as large 

* See account of this system at p. 330 of the History. 



40 GEOGRAPHY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 

and populous as Movvee, and perhaps the most valuable of all the islands, 
agriculturally and commercially; and eighty miles farther west are the 
large island of Atooi, (Kauai,) and the smaller ones of Oneehow, (Ni- 
hau,) and Tahoora, (Kaula,) which complete the number of the group. 

The islands are all mountainous and volcanic. On Owyhee are three 
great peaks — Mowna Roa, (Mauna Loa,) fourteen thousand feet high, 
Mowna Kea, and Mowna Hualalei, from which eruptions occasionally 
take place more extensive in their effects than any others on record, 
except, perhaps, those in Iceland. They, nevertheless, contain large 
tracts of fine land, which, under the influence of a regular and genial 
climate, are made to yield all the productions of the tropical, and many 
of those of the temperate regions ; and they are probably destined to be 
to the countries bordering upon the North Pacific what the West Indies 
are to those on the North Atlantic. They remain in the possession of 
their aboriginal occupants, who appear to evince considerable aptitude 
to receive instruction, and have, with the aid of some missionaries from 
the United States, established a regular government, in the form of a 
hereditary monarchy, under constitutional restrictions. The native 
population is, however, rapidly diminishing, while that of foreigners, 
especially from the United States, is increasing. 

The principal ports in the islands are Honoruru, (Honolulu,) on the 
south side of Woahoo, and Lahaina, on the west side of Mowee. The 
town of Honoruru contains about ten thousand inhabitants ; it is much 
frequented, especially by the whaling vessels of the United States ; and 
property to a great amount in manufactured articles, provisions, oil, 
&c., belonging to American citizens, is often deposited there. Owyhee 
has no good harbor, and the only places in it where vessels find secure 
anchorage are the Bays of Karakakooa, (Kealakeakua,) in which Captain 
Cook was murdered in 1779, and Toyahyah, (Kawaihae,) on the west 
side of the island. 



About two thousand miles south-east from the Sandwich Islands are 
the Marquesas Islands, of which the five northernmost, the most impor- 
tant in the group, discovered in April, 1791, by Captain Ingraham, of 
the brig Hope, of Boston, and named the Washington Islands, were 
occupied, in 1842, by the French. Six hundred miles south-west of 
these lie the Society Islands, of which the largest, Otaheite, or Tahiti, 
according to the new nomenclature, has been the subject of conten- 
tion between France and Great Britain, in consequence of the at- 
tempts of the former power to take possession of it. The Marquesas 
are small, rocky, and unproductive, and caiuiot afford support to more 
than a small number of civilized people ; so that the French will proba- 
bly find it prudent to abandon them. Otaheite, on the contrary, contains 
a large extent of the richest soil, and has every other requisite for a 
valuable possession to a maritime and commercial nation. 



PROJECTS FOR CANALS UNITING THE TWO OCEANS. 41 



PROJECTS FOR CANALS UNITING THE TWO OCEANS. 

It will also be proper, in conclusion, to offer some observations on a 
subject which may be considered worthy of interest here, from its ap- 
parent connection with the destinies of North-West America. 

The only means of communication for vessels between the Atlantic 
and the Pacific Oceans at present known or believed to exist, are through 
the seas south of the southern extremities of America and Africa; and 
each of these routes being circuitous and dangerous, the question as to 
the practicability of a canal, for the passage of ships through the central 
parts of the American continent where those seas are separated by narrow 
tracts of land, has been frequently agitated. Humboldt, in his justly- 
celebrated essay on Mexico, indicated nine places in America, in which 
the waters of the two oceans, or of streams entering into them respec- 
tively, are situated at short distances apart. Of these places it is necessary 
here to notice but three, to each of which attention has been strongly 
directed, at different times, and especially of late years, in the expectation 
that such a navigable passage for ships might be effected through it. 
They are, — the Isthmus of Panama — Nicaragua — and the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec. 

With regard to the last-mentioned of these places, it has been deter- 
mined, by accurate surveys, that the mountain chain, separating the two 
oceans, is nowhere less than a thousand feet in height above the level 
of the sea; and that a canal connecting the River Guasecualco, flowing 
into the Mexican Gulf, with the Pacific, must pass through an open cut 
of nearly that depth, or a tunnel, in either case more than thirty miles 
in length, as there is no water on the summit to supply locks, should it 
be found practicable to construct them. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, 
however, offers many advantages for travellers, and even for the trans- 
portation of precious commodities, especially to the people of the United 
States. The mouth of the Guasecualco River, on its northern shore, is 
less than seven hundred miles from the mouth of the Mississippi, and 
only one hundred miles by the road from a port on the Pacific, near 
Tehuantepec, which might be made a good harbor ; so that even now a 
traveller might go in a fortnight from Washington to the Pacific coast, 
and thence, by a steam vessel, in ten days more, to the mouth of the 
Columbia, or to the Sandwich Islands. 

In Nicaragua, it has been proposed to improve the navigation of the 
San Juan River, from its mouth on the Mosquito coast, to the great 
Lake of Nicaragua, from which it flows, or to cut a canal from the 
Atlantic to that lake, whence another canal should be made to the 
Pacific. Now, without enumerating the many other obstacles to this 
plan, any one of them sufficient to defeat it, were all things besides favor- 
able, it may be simply stated, that one mile of tunnel and two of very 
deep cutting through volcanic rock, in addition to many locks, w'ill be 
required in the fifteen miles, which, by the shortest and least difficult 
route, must be passed between the lake and the Pacific. Is such a work 
practicable? 

The Isthmus of Panama remains to be considered. From recent and 
minute surveys, it has been proved that no obstacles to a ship-canal are 
presented by the surface of this isthmus, equal to those which have been 

6 



42 PROJECTS FOR CANALS UNITING THE TWO OCEANS. 

surmounted, in many instances of a similar nature, in Europe and in the 
United States. On the other hand, the country contains only a few 
inhabitants of the most wretched description, from whose assistance in 
the work no advantage in any way could be derived ; so that all the 
laborers, with all their clothes, provisions, and tools, must be transported 
thither from a distance. The heat is at all times intense, and the wet 
season continues during eight months of the year ; the rains in July, 
August, September, and October, being incessant, and heavier, perhaps, 
than in any other part of the world. As to salubrity, there is a differ- 
ence of opinion ; but it is scarcely possible that the extremes of heat and 
daujpness, which are there combined, could be otherwise than deleterious 
to persons from Europe, or from the Northern States of the American 
Union, by whom the labor of cutting a canal must be performed, unless, 
indeed, it should be judged proper to employ negroes from the West 
Indies on the work. 

It seems, therefore, that a canal is practicable across the Isthmus of 
Panama: there is, however, not the slightest probability that it will be 
made during this century, if ever ; the commercial utility of such a 
communication being scarcely sufficient to warrant the enormous ex- 
penses of its construction and maintenance. Ships from Europe or the 
United States, bound for the west coasts of America, or the North 
Pacific, or China, would probably pass through it, unless the tolls should 
be too heavy ; but those returning from China would pursue the route 
around the Cape of Good Hope, which would be, in all respects, more 
advantageous for them, as well as for vessels sailing between the Atlantic 
coasts and India, or Australia. Not only is the direct distance from South 
Asia and Australia to the Atlantic coasts greater by way of the Pacific, 
but vessels taking that route must deviate very far from the direct course, 
in order to avoid the trade winds, which blow constantly westward over 
the intertropical parts of the Pacific. 

As regards political effects, it may he assumed as certain, that, should 
the canal be made by any company or nation whatsoever, it will, in 
time, notwithstanding any precautions by treaty or otherwise, become 
the property of the greatest naval power, which will derive a vast increase 
of political strength from the possession. 



HISTORY 



OF 



OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, 



THE OTHER COUNTRIES 



ON THE 



NORTH-WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA. 



HISTORY 

OF 

OREGON AND CALIFORNIA, 

ETC. 



CHAPTER I. 
To 1543. 

Preliminary Observations — Efforts of the Spaniards to discover Western Passages 
to India — Successive Discoveries of the West Indies, the North American 
Continent, the Eastern Passage to India, Brazil, and the Pacific Ocean — Search 
for a navigable Passage connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans — Sup- 
posed Discovery of such a Passage, called the Strait of Anian — Discovery of 
Magellan's Strait and the Western Passage to India — Conquest of Mexico by 
Cort6s, who endeavors to discover new Countries farther north-west — Voyages 
of Maldonado, Hurtado de Mcndoza, Grijalva, and Becerra — Discovery of Cali- 
fornia — Expedition of Cortes to California — Pretended Discoveries of Friar 
Marcos de Niza — Voyages of Ulloa, Alarcon, and Cabrillo — Expeditions of 
Coronado and Soto — The Spaniards desist from their Efforts to explore the North- 
West Coasts of America. 

The western coasts of North America were first explored by the 
Spaniards, in the sixteenth century. In order to convey a clear idea 
of the circumstances which led to their discovery, as well as of the 
claims and pretensions based upon it, a general view will be here 
presented of the proceedings and objects of Europeans with regard to 
the New World, from the period when its existence was ascertained, 
to that in which the exploration of its north-west coasts was begun. 

The islands found by Columbus, in his voyage across the Atlantic 
in 1492, were supposed to be situated in the immediate vicinity of 
Asia, the eastern limits of which were then unknown ; and their dis- 
covery was the result of endeavors to reach, by a western course, the 
shores of India, from which Europe chiefly derived its gold, silks, pre- 
cious stones, and spices, and those of China and Japan, of the wealth 
of which empires vague accounts had been brought by travellers. 

With the same objects in view, the Portuguese had been long 
engaged in exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa soutiiward and 
eastward, in search of some channel or sea, by which their ships 



46 TREATY OF PARTITION OF THE OCEAN. [1494. 

might enter the Indian Ocean ; being encouraged in their exertions 
by the Bull of Pope Nicholas V., issued in 1454, assuring to them 
the exclusive rights of navigation, trade, fishery, and conquest, in all 
seas and countries which they might find in that course, not before 
occupied by a Christian prince or people. They had, however, not 
reached the southern extremity of Africa when Columbus returned 
from his first voyage across the Atlantic ; and, immediately after- 
wards, the united Spanish sovereigns procured from Pope Alex- 
ander VI. Bulls, granting to them and their successors, forever, 
exclusive privileges with regard to the seas and countries which 
might be found by navigating towards the west, similar to those 
conferred on the Portuguese, as to seas and countries east of the 
Atlantic. 

Upon these extraordinary commissions, as bases, was founded the 
celebrated Treaty of Partition of the Ocean, concluded at Torde- 
sillas, on the 7th of June, 1494, between the sovereigns of Spain 
and the king of Portugal, then the greatest maritime powers of 
Europe. By this treaty, the Portuguese were to enjoy and possess 
the exclusive rights of discovery, trade, conquest, and dominion, in 
all the seas and territories not previously belonging to a Christian 
prince or people, east of a meridian line passing three hundred and 
seventy leagues west of the Cape Verd Islands ; and the Spaniards 
were to possess the same rights, in all seas and all pagan lands 
west of that line ; no provision being made for the contingency 
of the meeting of the parties proceeding in these opposite direc- 
tions. The two nations having thus, under the guaranty of the 
highest authority recognized in Europe, settled the conditions on 
which they were to appropriate to themselves, respectively, nearly 
all the sea and nearly all the land on the globe, without regard for 
the wishes or claims of any other people, each continued its search 
for a navigable passage to India, generally, though not always, 
within the limits assigned to it. 

In this search the Portuguese were soon successful ; for, in 1499, 
they sailed around the southern extremity of Africa, to India, where 
they established their dominion or their influence over many of 
those regions. They also, about the same time, obtamed possession 
of Brazil, the coasts of which were found to extend east of the 
meridian of partition, to the great regret and constant annoyance 
of the Spaniards, who had hoped, by the treaty of 1494, to secure 
to themselves tiie exclusive sovereignty of all the countries on the 
western side of the Atlantic. 



1500.] THE STRAIT OF ANIAN. 47 

The English, however, disregarding the Papal prohibitions, imme- 
diately entered the career of discovery in the vilest ; and, under their 
flag, John Cabot, first of all Europeans, reached the American conti- 
nent in 1497. They were soon followed by the French, who, during 
the early part of the sixteenth century, made numerous expeditions 
across the Atlantic ; and the Portuguese, notwithstanding the restric- 
tions of the treaty of partition, also endeavored to find a passage to 
India in the same direction. It was, indeed, long believed that 
Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese navigator, who explored the coasts 
of Labrador in 1499 and 1500, had actually sailed through a narrow 
channel, named by him the Strait of Anian* westward from the 
Atlantic, nearly in the course of the 58th parallel of latitude, into 
another great sea, communicating with the Indian Ocean. This 
channel may have been the same, now called Hudson's Strait, con- 
necting the Atlantic with Hudson's Bay, the discovery of which is 
generally attributed to Sebastian Cabot ; it was certainly known as 
the Strait of Labrador long before its entrance by the navigator 
whose name it bears. The belief in the existence of such a north- 
west passage to India, joining the Atlantic in the position assigned 
to the mouth of Cortereal's Strait of Anian, caused many voyages 
to be made to the coasts of northern America, on both sides, during 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and many false reports to 
be circulated of the discovery of the desired channel ; the effects of 
which reports, in promoting the exploration of those coasts, will 
be hereafter shown. 

* " It is stated in several collections of voyages, that the name ofJinian was given 
to the strait supposed to have been discovered by Gaspar Cortereal, in honor of two 
brothers, who accompanied him ; but there are no grounds for such a supposition. * * 
In the earliest maps, Jlnia is marked as the name of the north- westernmost part of 
America, .^ni, in the Japanese language, is said to signify brother ; hence, probably, 
the mistake." (Chronological History of Voyages in the Arctic Regions, by John 
Barrow, page 45.) — In an article on the subject of a north-west passage, in the 
Jtiondon Quarterly Review for October, 1816, supposed to have been written by 
Barrow, it is asserted that Cortereal " named the Strait of Anian, not in honor 
of two brothers who accompanied him, but because he deemed it to be the eastern 
extremity of a strait lohose western end, opening into the Pacific, had already received 
that name." The value of this assertion may be estimated from the fact, that 
the ocean on the western side of America was not discovered by Europeans until 
thirteen years after Cortereal's voyage and death. The review abounds in similar 
errors. 

Many of the most important errors in Barrow's Chronological History have been 
exposed by Mr. R. Biddle, in his admirable Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, to which the 
reader is referred for the most exact accounts, so far as they can be obtained, of these 
early voyages to the north-west coasts of the Atlantic. A concise and clear view of 
the results of these voyages will be found in the first chapter of Bancroft's History 
of the United States 



48 DISCOVERT OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. [1513. 

The Spaniards were, in the mean time, assiduously engaged in 
planting colonies in the countries newly found by them beyond the 
Atlantic, to which they gave the collective name of West Indies,* 
and in exploring the coasts in the vicinity of the islands first dis- 
covered, which were soon ascertained to be the borders of a vast 
continent. How far south this continent extended, and whether it 
was united, in the north, with Asia, or with the territories seen in that 
direction by the English and the Portuguese, remained to be deter- 
mined ; and, with those objects, the Spaniards persevered in their 
examinations, in which they were, moreover, encouraged by the 
constant assurances of the natives of the coasts and islands, 
respecting the existence of a great sea, and rich and powerful 
nations, towards the setting sun. 

In 1513, this great sea was discovered, near the spot where 
Panama now stands, by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the governor of 
the Spanish colony of Darien. It was naturally supposed to be 
the Southern Ocean, which bathed the shores of India ; and, as its 
proximity to the Atlantic was at the same time ascertained, encour- 
agement was afforded for the hope that the two great waters would 
be found connected in a position the most favorable for navigation 
between Europe and Asia. The examinations of the Spaniards 
were, in consequence, directed particularly to the coasts of the 
Isthmus of Darien, and were conducted with great zeal and perse- 
verance, until the entire separation of the two oceans by land, in 
that quarter, had been proved. These researches were, however, 
also continued both north and south of the isthmus, until, at length, 
in 1520, Fernando Magalhaens, or Magellan, a Portuguese, in the 
naval service of Spain, discovered and sailed through the strait now 
bearing his name, into the sea found by Balboa, over which he 
pursued his voyage westward to India. 

The great geographical question, as to the circumnavigation of 
the globe, was thus solved, though not in a manner entirely satisfac* 
lory to the Spaniards. The Strait of Magellan was intricate, and 

• The name America was first applied to the New World in a work entitled " Cosmo- 
graphia Instruction <^c., msuper quatuor Jlmerici Vespucii JVavigatioiies," written by 
Martin Waldseemuller, under the assumed name of Hylacomylus, and printed at Saint 
Die, in Lorraine, in 1507. This has been clearly proved by Humboldt, in his admi- 
rable " Examen Critique de I'Histoire de la Geographic du JVouveau Continent" in 
which many other interesting questions relating to the discovery of the New World 
are also discussed and satisfactorily determined. The Spaniards carefully avoided 
the use of the name America in their histories and official documents, in not one of 
which, anterior to the middle of the last century, can the word be found. 



1518.] THE SPANIARDS AND PORTUGUESE IN INDIA. 49 

the passage through it was attended with great difficulties and 
dangers ; besides which, it was itself almost as far from Europe as 
India by the eastern route. Other and more direct channels of 
communication between the Atlantic and the Southern Ocean might, 
indeed, be discovered : but the latter sea was found to be infinitely 
wider than had been supposed ; and, although the part of it crossed 
by Magellan was so little disturbed by storms that he was induced 
to name it the Pacific Ocean, yet he also observed that the winds 
blew over it invariably from eastern points. These circumstances 
depressed the hopes of the Spaniards with respect to the establish- 
ment of their power in Southern Asia, though they continued their 
expeditions to that part of the world by way of Magellan's Strait, 
and their search for new passages into the Pacific. Their expedi- 
tions to India brought them into collision with the Portuguese,* 
who had already made several settlements in the Molucca Islands, 
and had obtained from the Chinese, in 1518, the possession, under 
certain qualifications, of the important port of Macao, near Canton ; 
and many bloody conflicts took place, in consequence, between the 
subjects of those nations, in that distant quarter of the world, as 
well as many angry disputes between their governments, before the 
questions of right at issue could be settled. 

In the mean time, other events occurred, which consoled the 
Spaniards for their disappointments with regard to India, and 
caused them to direct their attention more particularly to the 
New World. 

Before the period of the departure of Magellan on his expedi- 
tion, the Spaniards had, in fact, derived from their discoveries 
beyond the Atlantic but few of the advantages which they anti- 
cipated. They had found and taken possession of countries 

* Spain claimed the exclusive navigation, trade, and conquest, westward, to the 
extremity of the peninsula of Malacca, so as to include all the Molucca Islands and 
China; while the Portuguese insisted on exercising the same privileges, without 
competition, eastward as far as the Ladrone Islands ; each on the ground that the 
meridian of partition, settled with regard to tlie Atlantic, in 1494, would, if continued 
on the otlier side of tiie globe, pass in such a manner as to place the portions claimed 
by itself within its own hemisphere. The question was discussed between the two 
cotirts directly, and by their commissioners who met at Badajos in 1523, but without 
arriving at any definite arrangement. At length, on the i22d of April, 1529, a tre<aty 
was concluded at Saragossa, by the terms of which the king of Spain sold all his rights 
to the Moluccas to the king of Portugal for 350,000 ducats of gold, ($3,080,000,) 
with the proviso that the latter might, by repaying the sum, be at liberty again to 
urge those rights. The sum was never repaid, and Spain did not again claim the 
islands ; though, for a long period afterwards, the Spanish empire was represented 
on Spanish maps as extending westward to the extremity of Malacca. 

7 



50 MEXICO CONQUERED BY THE SPANIARDS. [1522. 

extensive, rich in mines, productive in soil, and delightful in 
climate, but uncultivated, and thinly peopled by savages, who 
could neither by gentle nor by violent means be induced to labor 
regularly for others or for themselves; and, although the want 
of a working population was in part supplied by the introduction 
of negro slaves from Africa, there was little prospect that Spain 
would ever be much benefited by these distant colonies. While 
Magellan's ships were on their western route to India, however, 
the wealthy and powerful empire of Mexico, which had been 
discovered in 1518 by a party of Spaniards from Cuba, was 
conquered by Hernando Cortes ; and Spain immediately became 
the richest nation of Europe. The reports of the brilliant results 
of this conquest drew to the West Indies crowds of adventurers, 
all eager to acquire wealth and renown by similar means ; who, 
uniting in bands, under daring and experienced captains, ranged 
through both the western continents, seeking mines of precious 
metals to work, or rich nations to plunder. In this manner 
Peru was subjugated by Pizarro and his followers before 1535 ; 
the other expeditions were fruitless, as respects the principal 
objects in view, while, in the course of them, many distant shores 
and interior regions were explored, which would otherwise, perhaps, 
not have been visited for centuries. The acts of these demon 
heroes are recorded with minuteness in the stirring pages of the 
chronicles of their day ; and curious narratives of several of their 
expeditions, written by persons engaged in them, have been pre- 
served by the assiduity of Spanish, Italian, English, and Dutch 
collectors of historical tracts. 

The desire to discover new passages of communication for vessels 
between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, was also a strong 
motive for the expeditions of the Spaniards along the coasts of the 
New World ; and no one pursued this search with more zeal and 
perseverance than Hernando Cortes. Scarcely had he established 
the authority of his sovereign in Mexico, than he commenced the 
exploration of the adjoining seas and countries, with that object, 
as well as with the hope of finding other rich nations to subdue ; 
and in such enterprises he spent a great portion of his time and 
resources, during his residence in America. In prosecution of his 
plans, chiefly, the long and in most places narrow territory, 
connecting Mexico with the southern continent, was carefully 
examined, until it had been ascertained that the two seas were 
separated by land throughout the whole extent. He, at the same 



1528.] PLANS OF CORTES FOR FURTHER CONQUESTS. 51 

time, employed vessels in surveying the coasts of the Mexican Gulf, 
and those of the Atlantic, farther north ; and he built others on the 
Pacific side, for similar purposes, two of which he sent, as early as 
1526, to the East Indies, in aid of the armaments despatched thither 
from Spain, under Loyasa.* 

The first expedition made by the Spaniards along the Pacific 
coasts, westward from Mexico, was conducted by Pedro Nunez 
Maldonado, one of the officers of Cortes, who sailed from the 
mouth of the P».iver of Zacatula in July, 1528, and passed nearly six 
months in surveying the shores between that point and the mouth 
of the River of Santiago, about a hundred leagues farther north- 
west. The territory of which this coast formed the southern border 
was then called Xalisco ; it was entirely unknown to the Europeans, 
and was inhabited by fierce tribes of savages, who had never been 
subdued by the Mexicans. Maldonado brought back flattering 
accounts of its fertility, and of the abundance of precious metals 
in its interior, which did not fail to excite the attention of his 
employer, as well as of others among their countrymen. 

Cortes was at that time in Spain, whither he had gone in 1528, 
chiefly with the object of obtaining some more definite recognition 
of his powers and rights in the New World than had been hitherto 
granted. He was received at Madrid with the most signal honors 
by his sovereign, the celebrated emperor Charles V. ; and, on his 
return to Mexico, he carried with him patents, confirming him 
as captain-general of that country, then called New Spain, and 
creating him a grandee of Castile, with the title of Marquis of the 
Valley of Oaxaca ; to which was attached the possession of vast tracts 
of country in America, including the port of Tehuantepec, on the 
Pacific. He also procured from the emperor a capitulation, or 
charter, empowering him to discover and conquer any islands in the 

* The accounts of the early Spanish expeditions of discovery on the North Pacific 
side of America, contained in the present chapter, are derived from — the published 
letters of Cortes, and a number of letters and reports from him and other Spanish 
commanders, hitherto unpublished, copies of which, made from the originals in 
iSIadrid, were kindly placed at the disposition of the writer by W. H. Prescott, of 
Boston, the accomplished author of the Histories of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of 
the Conquest of Mexico — the Historia General de las Indias, by Herrera — the 
Cronica de Nueva Espafia, by Gomara — the Historia de la Conquista de Mexico, 
by Bernal Dias — the Raccolte de Viaggi, by Ramusio — the Collection of Voyages 
and Discoveries, by Hakluyt — the History of Voyages in the Pacific, by Burney — 
and the Introduction to the Journal of the Voyage made, in 1792, by Captains 
Galiano and Valdes, in the Spanish schooners Sutil and Mexicana, published at 
Madrid, by order of the government, in 1S02, to which references will also be fre- 
quently made in the succeeding chapters. 



52 NUNO DE GUZMAN. [1530. 

Pacific, or other countries west of Mexico, not within the limits 
assigned to any other Spanish governor; of which countries he and 
his heirs forever were to enjoy the government, and one twelfth of 
all the precious metals, pearls, and other advantages therefrom 
accruing, on condition of their treating the natives with kindness, 
and endeavoring to convert them to the Christian faith. The politic 
Charles did not, however, intrust such extensive powers to one so 
capable and ambitious as Cortes, without at the same time providing 
certain checks, by means of which the conqueror of Mexico might 
be effectually prevented from using his faculties for any other 
ends than enlarging the dominions of the crown of Castile. The 
expenses of all his expeditions were to be borne by himself ; and 
he could do little, if any thing, without the assent of the Audiencia, 
or Royal Court and Board of Administration, established at Mexico, 
the members of which were chosen from among his most bitter 
enemies. 

The only governor in the New World with whose claims Cortes 
might have been supposed to interfere, by expeditions westward 
from Mexico, was Nuno de Guzman, the president of the Audiencia, 
who had obtained from the emperor the government of Panuco, 
the country on the Gulf of Mexico surrounding the spot now 
occupied by the town of Tampico, and also that of Xalisco, of 
which he had received accounts from Maldonado and other adven- 
turers. This person, one of the same stamp with Pizarro and 
Davila, had been assiduously engaged in undermining the authority 
and influence of Cortes ; and no sooner did he learn that his rival 
was returning to Mexico as captain-general, than he assembled all 
the troops under his command in the capital, and marched for 
Xalisco, where he remained many years, subduing the country, and 
exterminating its aboriginal inhabitants. 

Cortes thus, on his arrival in Mexico in July, 1530, found himself 
deprived of the means not only of making expeditions of discov- 
ery, but also of maintaining his authority in the kingdom ; and he 
was obliged to wait two years before he could send a single vessel 
out on the Pacific. At length, by the middle of the year 1532, he 
had two ships ready for sea, which he determined to despatch on an 
exploratory voyage, along the western coast, whilst the others were 
in progress of construction at Tchuantepec. 

At that period, the whole eastern coast of the American contment 
had been explored, but imperfectly by European navigators ; though 
no part of the interior, north of Mexico and the countries in its 



1532.] UNCERTAINTY OF ACCOUNTS OF OLD VOYAGES. 53 

immediate vicinity, was known. The northernmost points occupied 
by the Spaniards were, — on the Atlantic side, Panuco, within a few 
miles of the Mexican Gulf, — and, on the Pacific side, Culiacan, which 
was founded by Nuiio de Guzman, in 1530, at the entrance of the 
Gulf of California. Beyond Culiacan, towards the north and the 
west, the lands and the seas were entirely unexplored ; and between 
that place and the civilized portion of Mexico, extended a wide 
space of uncultivated country, including Xalisco, which was called, 
by the Spaniards, New Galicia. The ports occupied by the Span- 
iards on the Pacific side of Mexico, were Tehuantepec, the most 
eastern, at which Cortes had his arsenals and ship-yards ; Acapulco, 
the principal place of trade, and tl.e nearest to the capital ; and 
Zacatula, and Aguatlan, on the confines of Xalisco, beyond which 
the coasts were little known. 

Before entering upon the history of the Spanish discoveries on 
the North Pacific side of America, it should be observed, that the 
accounts of these and other expeditions by sea, made at that period, 
which have descended to us, are very obscure and inexact, especially 
as regards geographical positions ; so that it is generally difficult, 
and often impossible, to identify places by means of the descriptions 
given in them. This arises partly from the circumstance, that the 
accounts were nearly all written by priests, clerks, or other persons 
unacquainted with naval matters, who paid little attention to lati- 
tudes, longitudes, courses, and bearings, and were unable to record 
them properly ; and partly from the imperfection of the instruments 
then employed to determine the altitudes and relative distances of 
the heavenly bodies, which, even on land, and under the most favor- 
able conditions of the atmosphere, gave results far from accurate, 
and were entirely useless in a vessel on a rough sea, or in cloudy 
weather. This uncertainty as to the positions of places necessarily 
leads to confusion respecting their names ; and we accordingly find, 
in the account of each of these voyages along the same portion of the 
coast, a nomenclature of capes, bays, and islands, almost entirely dif- 
ferent from that contained in the narratives of all the other voyages. 

The expedition of discovery, made, by order of Cortes, to the 
coasts north-west of Mexico, in 1532, was conducted by his kins- 
man, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, who sailed from Tehuantepec in 
July of that year, with two vessels, one commanded by himself, the 
other by Juan de Mazuela. In the instructions drawn up by Cortes, 
of which a copy has been preserved, Mendoza was directed to sail 
within sight of the coast, and, at all convenient places, to land, and 



54 VOYAGES OF MENDOZA, GRIJALVA, AND BECERRA. [1532. 

communicate with the natives, whom he was to concihate by every 
means in his power. Should he find a country which seemed to be 
rich, or inhabited by civihzed persons, he was immediately to return, 
or to send back one of his vessels, with the news.* Hurtado de 
Mendoza accordingly proceeded slowly along the shore of the 
continent, as far north-west as the 27th degree of latitude, where, 
finding his crew mutinous, he sent back one of his vessels, with 
the greater part of his men, and continued the voyage, with a smaL 
crew, in the other. The vessel sent back reached Culiacan River 
in great distress, and was there deserted by nearly all her men. Her 
commander then endeavored, with the remainder of his crew, to 
carry her to Acapulco : but she was stranded at the mouth of the 
River of Vanderas, near the point now called Cape Corrientes, and 
all on board, with the exception of three, were put to death by the 
natives of the country, after which the vessel was seized and plun- 
dered by Nuno de Guzman. As to the vessel in which Mendoza 
continued his voyage, a vague account was received, that she had 
been thrown on the coast far north, and that all her crew had 
perished. 

Cortes did not receive the news of the loss of the vessel which 
had been sent back by Hurtado de Mendoza until the middle 
of the following year; and he then immediately despatched two 
ships from Tehuantepec, in search of the other vessel, under the 
command, respectively, of Hernando Grijalva and Diego Becerra. 
These ships left the port together, on the 30th of September, 
1533, but were soon after separated. Grijalva, going far out, 
discovered a group of islands situated about fifty leagues from 
the coast, named by him Islands of St. Thomas, (the same now 
called the Revillagigedo Islands,) where he remained until the 
following spring, and then returned to Acapulco, without having 
seen any new part of the continent. Becerra, with the other ship, 
took his course north-westward along the shore of Xalisco, near 
which his crew mutinied, and he was murdered by the pilot, 
Fortuno Ximenes. The mutineers, under the command of the 
pilot, then steered directly west from the main-land, and soon 
reached a coast not before known, on which they landed, after 
anchoring their ship in a small bay, near the 23d degree of latitude. 
There, more than twenty of their number, including Ximenes, were 



* Herrera, Decade v. book vii. — Manuscript letters and memorials from Cortes to 
the emperor, in 1539 and 1540; and from Nuiio de Guzman, in 1535 and 1540. 



1535.] CORTES LANDS IN CALIFORNIA. 55 

killed by the natives ; the survivors succeeded in carrying the vessel 
over to the little harbor of Chiametla, in Xalisco, where she also 
was seized by Nuno de Guzman. 

These attempts of Cortes to make discoveries in the north-west, 
had, in the mean time, excited Nuno de Guzman to efforts with the 
same object ; and he had sent several parties of men in that direc- 
tion, one of which appears to have traced the western shore of the 
continent as far as the mouth of the river now called the Colorado, 
and to have first brought accounts of rich and populous countries 
and splendid cities in the interior. Guzman had also received 
large accessions to his forces from Mexico, and was making many 
settlements, one of which soon prospered, and became, in time, 
the city of Guadalaxara, the second in size in New Spain. 

When Cortes became assured of the seizure of his vessels by 
Guzman, he addressed a complaint on the subject to the Audiencia ; 
whose decision being, however, not so determinate in his favor as 
he wished, he assembled a large body of troops, and marched with 
them to Chiametla, where he also ordered three vessels to be sent 
from Tehuantepec. On the approach of these forces, Guzman 
advanced to meet them, but no action ensued ; and Cortes, having 
been joined at Chiametla by his vessels, embarked in them, with a 
portion of his men, and set sail for the new country, found by 
Ximenes in the west,, which was said to abound in the finest pearls. 
On the 3d of May, 1535, the day of the Invention of the Holy 
Cross, according to the Roman Catholic calendar, the squadron 
anchored in the bay, on the shore of which the murderers of 
Becerra had met their fate in the preceding year ; and, in honor of 
the day, the name of Santa Cruz was bestowed on the place, of 
which possession was solemnly taken for the Spanish sovereign. 

The country thus claimed by Cortes for Spain, was the south-east 
part of the great peninsula, which projects from the American con- 
tinent on the Pacific side, in nearly the same direction, and between 
nearly the same parallels of latitude, as that of Florida on the 
Atlantic side. It soon after received the name of California, 
respecting the origin and meaning of which, many speculations — 
none of them satisfactory or even ingenious — have been offered. 
The bay called Santa Cruz by Cortes was probably the same now 
known as Port La Paz, about a hundred miles from the Pacific, 
near the 24th degree of latitude ; though some accounts place 
it in the immediate vicinity of the southernmost point of the 
peninsula. 



56 CORTES SUPERSEDED BY MENDOZA. [1537. 

On the shore of this bay, surrounded by bare mountains of rock, 
arid and forbidding in appearance, though not more so than the 
sandy waste about Vera Cruz, Cortes landed with a hundred and 
thirty men and forty horses, and then sent back two of his vessels to 
Chiametla, to bring over the remainder of the forces ; hoping to 
find, in the interior of the new country, another Mexico, in the 
conquest of which he might employ his powerful energies. The 
vessels soon reappeared, with a portion of the troops, and were 
again despatched to the Mexican coast, from which only one of 
them returned, the other having been wrecked on her way. Cortes 
thereupon embarked, with seventy men, for Xalisco, from which he 
came back, after encountering the greatest dangers, just in time 
to prevent the total destruction by famine of those left at Santa 
Cruz. 

In these operations, more than a year was consumed, without 
obtaining any promise of advantage. The new country, so far as it 
had been explored, was utterly barren, and, except that a few pearls 
were found on the coast, destitute of all attraction for the Spaniards. 
The officers of the expedition were discontented : of the men, a 
number had died from want and disease ; the others were 
mutinous, and cursed " Cortes, his island, his bay, and his dis- 
covery." * 

Meanwhile his wife, becoming alarmed by the reports of the ill 
success of the expedition, which had reached Mexico, sent a vessel 
to Santa Cruz, with letters entreating his immediate return ; and he, 
at the same time, learned that he had been superseded in the 
government of New Spain by Don Antonio de Mendoza, a noble- 
man of high rank and character, who had already made his 
entrance into the capital as viceroy. 

The removal of Cortes from the government of the country which 
had, by his means, been added to the dominions of Spain, was a 
heavy blow ; particularly as he was, at that moment, much embar- 
rassed from want of funds, his private property having been seriously 
injured by the expenses of his recent expeditions, from which no 
advantage had been obtained. He was, in consequence, obliged to 
return to Mexico, where he arrived in the beginning of 1537, and, 
soon after, to recall from Santa Cruz his lieutenant, Francisco de 
Ulloa, with the forces which had been left there ; and, not being 
able, at the time, to employ his vessels, he sent two of them, under 
Grijalva, to Peru, laden with arms, ammunition, and provisions, in 

* Bernal Dias, chap. 199. 



1527.] RAMBLES OF CABEZA-VACA. 57 

aid of his friend Francisco Pizarro, who was then in great difficulties, 
from an extensive insurrection of the natives.* 

Cortes, nevertheless, still claimed the right, in virtue of his 
capitulation with the sovereign, and as admiral of the South Sea, 
to make expeditions on that ocean for his own benefit ; and he 
resolved to prosecute the discovery of California, by which he 
still expected to retrieve his fortunes, so soon as he could obtain the 
requisite funds. The advancement of this claim, however, brought 
him into collision with the new viceroy, who was an enlightened 
and determined man, and who had likewise become interested in the 
exploration of the regions north-west of Mexico, by the accounts of 
some persons recently arrived from that quarter ; and a violent con- 
troversy ensued between the two chiefs, which lasted until the 
conqueror quitted Mexico. 

The persons from whom the viceroy Mendoza received this 
information respecting the territories north-west of Mexico, were 
Alvaro Nunez de Cabeza-Vaca, two other Spaniards, and a negro or 
Moor. They had landed, in 1527, near Tampa Bay, in the 
peninsula of Florida, among the adventurers who invaded that 
country under Panfilo Narvaez, in search of mines and plunder ; 
and, after the destruction of their comrades by shipwreck, starvation, 
and the arrows of the Indians, they had wandered for nine years 
through forests and deserts, until they reached Culiacan, whence 
they were sent on to Mexico. Of their route, it is impossible to 
form any exact idea from the narrative published by Cabeza-Vaca : 
he had seen no signs of wealth or civilization in the regions which 
he had traversed; but he had, in many places, received from the 
natives accounts of rich and populous countries, inhabited by 
civilized people, situated farther north-west ; and the viceroy, after 
hearing these accounts, thought proper to endeavor to ascertain the 



* A long account of the adventures of Cortes, in his Californian expedition, may 
be found in Herrera, Decade viii. book viii. chap. ix. and x. The descriptions of 
the localities given by Herrera, and other historians, are, however, so vague, that it is 
impossible to trace the movements of the Spaniards with exactness ; and the events 
related are unimportant, being merely details of disasters, such as might have 
occurred to ordinary men, engaged in ordinary enterprises. Those who take interest 
in every thing connected with Cortes, — and the number of such must doubtless be 
greatly increased, since the publication of Mr. Prescott's History of the Conquest of 
Mexico, — may obtain explanations, as to the events of this expedition, from the 
Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, and from the first volume of 
Burney's History of Voyages in the Pacific ; but they should avoid the account 
given by Fleurieu, in his Introduction to the Journal of Marchand's Voyage, which 
only renders confusion worse confounded. 

8 



58 ULLOA DISCOVERS THE WEST COAST OF CALIFORNIA. [1539. 

truth of them. For this purpose he collected a band of fifty horse- 
men, who were to be commanded by Dorantes, one of the compan- 
ions of Cabeza-Vaca ; but, that plan being overthrown by some 
circumstance, he was induced, by the representations of his friend, 
the celebrated Bartolome de las Casas, to depute two friars to make 
the exploration, with the view of preserving the inhabitants of the 
countries visited, from the violence to which military men would not 
fail to resort, if there should be occasion, for the gratification of 
their cupidity. The friars, Marcos de Niza, provincial of the 
Franciscan order in Mexico, and Honorato, accompanied by the 
negro or Moor, Estavanico, who had crossed the continent with 
Cabeza-Vaca, accordingly set out from Culiacan, on the 7th of March, 
1539, in search of the rich countries reported to lie in the north-west. 

Soon after the departure of the friars, the last expedition made 
by order of Cortes was begun.* It was commanded by Francisco 
de Ulloa, who sailed from Acapulco on the 8th of July, 1539, with 
three vessels, well manned and equipped, and took his course for 
California. One of the vessels was driven ashore in a storm near 
Culiacan : with the others Ulloa proceeded to the Bay of Santa 
Cruz, and thence in a few days departed to survey the coasts 
towards the north-east. In this occupation the ships were engaged 
until the 18th of October, when Ulloa returned to Santa Cruz, 
having in the mean time completely examined both shores of the 
great gulf which separates California from the main land on the 
east, and ascertained the fact of the junction of the two territories, 
near the 32d degree of latitude, though he failed to discover the 
Colorado River, which enters the gulf at its northern extremity. 
This gulf was named, by Ulloa, the Sea of Cortes; but it is gener- 
ally distinguished, on Spanish maps, as the Vermilion Sea, (JSlar 
Vermejo,) and, in those of other nations, as the Gulf of California. 

On the 29th of October, Ulloa again sailed from Santa Cruz, in 
order to examine the coasts farther west, and having rounded the 
point now called Cape San Lucas, which forms the southern 
extremity of California, he pursued his voyage along the coast 
towards the north. In this direction the Spaniards proceeded 
slowly, often landing and fighting with the natives, and generally 
opposed by violent storms from the north-west, until the end of 
January, 1540, when they had reached an island near the coast, 
under the 28th parallel of latitude, which they named the Isle of 

* See Narrative of Francisco Preciado, one of the officers of the Santa Agueda, in 
Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 283, and in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 503. 



1540.] JOURNEY OF FRIAR MARCOS DE NIZA. 59 

Cedars. There they remained the greater part of the time, until 
the beginning of April, being prevented from advancing farther 
north by head winds; and then, as several of the crews of both 
vessels were disabled by sickness, and their provisions were insuf- 
ficient to enable them to continue tlie voyage together much longer, 
Ulloa resolved to send one of his ships back to Mexico. The 
Santa Agueda, bearing the sick and the accounts of the discoveries, 
accordingly sailed from the Isle of Cedars on the 5th of April, and 
in the beginning of the following month she arrived at Santiago, in 
Xalisco, where she was seized by the officers of the viceroy, who 
was anxious to learn the particulars of her discoveries. Of the fate 
of Ulloa there are contradictory accounts. Herrera says that 
nothing was ever heard of him after his parting with the Santa 
Agueda ; others of his contemporaries, however, state that he con- 
tinued his voyage along the west coast of Cahfornia, as far as a 
point called Cape Engano, near the 30th degree of latitude, and 
thence returned safely to Mexico. 

Whatsoever may have been the importance of the geographical 
results of this voyage, they were scarcely satisfactory to Cortes ; and 
they attracted little attention among the Spaniards in Mexico, who 
were then all engaged in plans and speculations concerning the rich 
and delightful countries, of the discovery of which, by Friar Marcos 
de Niza and his companions, accounts had recently arrived. From 
these accounts, as contained in the letter addressed to the viceroy 
by Friar Marcos,* and from other evidence, it is probable that the 
reverend explorer did really penetrate to a considerable distance into 
the interior of the continent, and did find there countries partially 
cultivated, and inhabited by people possessing some acquaintance 
with the arts of civilized life ; though, as to the precise situation of 
those regions, or the routes })ursued in reaching them, no definite 
idea can be derived from the narrative. The friar pretended to 
have discovered, north-west of Mexico, beyond the 35th degree of 
latitude, extensive territories, richly cultivated, and abounding in 
gold, silver, and precious stones, the population of which was much 
greater, and farther advanced in civilization, than those of Mexico 
or Peru. In these countries were many towns, and seven cities, 
of which the friar only saw one, called C'evola or Cibola, containing 
twenty thousand large stone houses, some of four stories, and 

The letter of Friar Marcos, relating his discoveries, may be found in Ramusio, 
vol. iii. p. 297, and in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 43S. See, also, Herrera, Decade vi. p. 204,. 



60 VOYAGE OF ALARCON. [1540. 

adorned with jewels ; yet he was assured, by the people, that this 
was the smallest of the cities, and far inferior, in extent and mag- 
nificence, to one called Totonteac, situated more towards the north- 
west. The inhabitants of Cibola had, at first, been hostile to the 
Spaniards, and had killed the negro ; but they had, in the end, 
manifested a disposition to embrace Christianity, and to submit to 
the authority of the king of Spain, in whose name Friar Marcos 
had taken possession of the whole country, by secretly erecting 
crosses in many places. 

These, and other things of a similar kind, gravely related by a 
respectable priest, who professed to have witnessed what he described, 
were universally admitted to be true ; and the viceroy Mendoza, 
having communicated them to his sovereign, began to prepare for 
the reduction of the new countries, and the conversion of their 
inhabitants to Christianity. Cortes, however, insisted on continuing 
his discoveries in the same direction, apparently giving little credit 
to the statements of Friar Marcos ; while his old companion in arms, 
the redoubtable Pedro de Alvarado, claimed to undertake the con- 
quest in virtue of a capitulation recently concluded between himself 
and the emperor. Hernando de Soto, likewise, who had just 
obtained a commission for the discovery of Florida, declared the 
seven cities to be within his jurisdiction ; and Nuho de Guzman 
protested that his own right was the best, and with some reason, in 
consequence of his labors in the subjugation and settlement of New 
Galicia, of which he maintained that the rich countries formed 
part. After these disputes had lasted some months, a compromise 
was made between the viceroy and Alvarado, agreeably to which 
the latter was to command the expedition destined for the reduction 
of the rich territories in the north-west ; and, about the same time, 
Cortes returned in disgust to Spain, where he passed the remaining 
seven years of his life in vain efforts to recover his authority in 
Mexico, or to obtain indemnification for his losses. 

The viceroy Mendoza had, however, immediately on receiving the 
news of the discoveries from Friar Marcos, sent two bodies of armed 
forces, the one by land, the other by sea, to reconnoitre the rich 
countries, and prepare the way for their conquest. 

The marine armament consisted of two ships, commanded by 
Fernando de Alarcon, who sailed from the port of Santiago on the 
9th of May, 1540, and, proceeding along the coast towards the 
north-west, reached the extremity of the Gulf of California in 
August following. There he discovered a great river, which he 



1540.] EXPEDITION OF VAZC^UEZ DE CORONADO. 6. 

named Rio de Nuestra Setiora de Buena Guia* (or River of our 
Lady of Safe Conduct,) probably the same now called the Colorado. 
This stream Alarcon ascended, to the distance of more than eighty 
leagues, with a party of his men, in boats, making inquiries on the 
way about the seven cities ; in reply to which, he received from 
the Indians a number of confused stories — of kingdoms rich in 
precious metals and jewels — of rivers filled with crocodiles and other 
monsters — of droves of buffaloes — of enchanters — and other won- 
derful or remarkable objects. Of Totonteac he could learn nothing ; 
though, at the end of his voyage up the river, he obtained what he 
considered some definite information respecting Cibola, and was 
assured that he might reach that place by a march of ten days into 
the interior. He, however, suspected treachery on the part of those 
who gave the assurance ; and, not conceiving it prudent to attempt 
to advance farther, he returned to his ships. In a second voyage up 
the river, he obtained no additional information ; and, believing it 
needless to continue the search, he went back to Mexico, where he 
arrived before the end of the year.f 

The land forces, despatched at the same time towards the north- 
west, were composed of cavalry and infantry, and were accompanied 
by priests, for the conversion of the natives to Christianity. They 
were commanded by Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, a man of 
resolute and serious character, and by no means disposed to exag- 
gerate, who had been appointed governor of New Galicia, in place 
of Nuno de Guzman. His letter to the viceroy,| containing 
accounts of tjie first period of the expedition, though wanting in 
precision, is yet sufficiently exact to afford a general idea of the 
direction in which he marched, and even of the position of some of 
the principal places which he visited. 

* In honor of the viceroy, wlio bore on his arms an image of JVuestra Senora de 
Buena Guia. 

t Letter of Alarcon to the viceroy Mendoza, in Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 303, and in 
Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 505. See, also, Herrera, Decade vi. p. 208. 

The Californian Gulf had thus been completely explored, as appears not only 
from the accounts of the voyages of Ulloa and Alarcon, but also from a chart of the 
coasts of California, and the west coast of Mexico, drawn, in 1541, by Domingo del 
Castillo, Alarcon's pilot, of which an Ksngraved facsimile may be found in the edition 
of the Letters of Cortes, published at Mexico, in 1770, by Archbishop Lorenzana. 
The shores of the gulf, and of the west side of California, to the 30th degree of lati- 
tude, are there delineated with a surprising approach to accuracy. The pilot doubt- 
less derived his information chiefly from the journals of Ulloa, which were sent back 
in the Santa Agueda, and were seized, by order of the viceroy, immediately on the 
arrival of that vessel in Mexico. 

t Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 300. Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 447. 



62 CIBOLA. [1540. 

Agreeably to this letter, the Spaniards left Culiacan on the 22d 
of April, 1540, and took their way towards the north, following, as 
well as they could, the course described by the friar : but, ere they 
had proceeded far, they had abundant evidences of the incorrect- 
ness of the accounts of that personage ; for the route which he had 
represented as easy and practicable, proved to be almost impassable. 
They, however, made their way over mountains and deserts, and 
through rivers, and, at length, in July, they reached the country of 
the seven cities, for which Cibola appeared to be the general name ; 
but, to their disappointment, it proved to be only a half-cultivated 
region, thinly inhabited by people not absolutely savage, though 
destitute of the wealth and refinement attributed to them by Friar 
Marcos. The seven great cities were seven small towns, some of 
them, indeed, containing large houses of stone, rudely built, and un- 
ornamented. Of fruits there were none, except such as grew wild ; 
and the immense quantities of precious metals and stones were 
merely " a few turquoises, and some gold and silver, supposed to be 
good. In fine," says Vazquez de Coronado, in his letter to the 
viceroy, " of the seven cities, and the kingdoms and provinces of 
which the reverend father provincial made a report to your excel- 
lency, he spoke the truth in nothing ; for we have found all to be 
quite the contrary, except only as to the houses of stone." The 
Spaniards, nevertheless, took possession of the country, in due form, 
for their sovereign ; and, being pleased with its soil and climate, 
they entreated their commander to allow them to remain and settle 
there. . To this inglorious proposition Vazquez refused to consent ; 
and, having despatched his letter to Mendoza, from one of the cities 
of Cibola, named by him Granada, he took his departure, with his 
forces, for the north-west, in search of other new countries. 

From the descriptions of the position, climate, productions, and 
animals, of Cibola, given by Vazquez de Coronado, there is some 
reason for believing it to be the region near the great dividing 
chain of mountains, east of the northernmost part of the Gulf of 
California, about the head-waters of the Rivers Yaqui and Gila, 
which fall into that arm of the Pacific. This part of America, now 
called Sonora, (a corruption of Seilora,) though long since settled by 
the Spaniards, is little known to the inhabitants of other countries. 
It is described, by those who have recently visited it, as a most 
delightful, productive, and salubrious region, containing innumerable 
mines of silver and gold, among which are some of the richest in 
the world. There are, moreover, in that territory, many collections 



1540—1543.] ^uiviRA. 63 

of ruins of large stone buildings, which were found in their present 
state by the first Spanish settlers, and are called casus grandes de 
Jos Azieques, (great houses of the Aztecks,) from the supposi- 
tion or tradition that they were built by that people before their 
invasion of Mexico.* Vazquez de Coronado, indeed, remarks that 
the inhabitants of Cibola, though not wanting in intelligence, did 
not appear to be capable of erecting the houses which he saw there. 

Of the movements of the Spaniards, after they quitted Cibola, 
in August, 1540, the accounts are so vague and contradictory, tiiat 
it is impossible to trace their route. It seems, however, that the 
greater part of the forces soon returned to Mexico ; while the others, 
under their commander, wandered, for nearly two years longer, 
through the interior of the continent, in search of a country called 
^uivira, said, by the Indians, to be situated far in the north, and to 
be governed by " a king named Tatarrax, with a long beard, hoary- 
headed, and rich, who worshipped a cross of gold, and the image 
of the Queen of Heaven." f This country they found near the 40th 
degree of latitude : but the people had no other wealth than skins ; 
and their king, though hoary-headed, possessed no jewels, " save one 
of copper, lianging about his neck." Quivira is described as a level 
territory, covered with herds of buffaloes, which form the whole 
support of the inhabitants; and, if its latitude has been correctly 
reported, it is most probably the region about the head-waters of the 
Arkansas and Platte Rivers ; though Gomara places it near the sea, 
and says that the Spaniards saw ships on the coast, laden with 
East India goods. Vazquez had, probably, before leaving Quivira, 
learned the true value of Indian accounts of rich countries ; and, 
not deeming it advisable to pursue the search for them any longer, 
he returned to Mexico in 1543. 

During the absence of Vazquez de Coronado, the great arma- 
ment, destined for the exploration and conquest of the north-western 
territories, under Pedro de Alvarado, was prepared ; but, just as 
the expedition was about to be commenced, a rebellion broke out 
among the Indians of Xalisco, and all the forces at the viceroy's 
disposal were required to quell it. In the campaign which ensued, 
in the summer of 1541, Alvarado was killed by a kick from a horse ; 
and Mendoza's expectations of advantage from the north-west 
regions were, in the mean time, so much lowered, that he resolved 
to reduce the scale of his expeditions for discovery in that quarter. 

• Hardy s Travels in Mexico, from 1825 to 1828. f Gomara, chap. 213 



64 VOYAGE OF CABRILLO. [1542, 1543. 

The disturbances being, at length, ended, in the spring of 1542, two 
vessels were placed under the command of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, 
a Portuguese of high reputation as a navigator, who was directed 
to examine the western side of California, as far northward as pos- 
sible, seeking particularly for rich countries, and for passages leading 
towards the iVtlantic ; while Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, a relation of 
the viceroy, was sent, with the remamder of the disposable vessels 
and forces, across the Pacific, to endeavor to form establishments in 
India. 

The two vessels under Cabrillo sailed together from Navidad, a 
small port in Xalisco, in June, 1542 ; and, having in a few days 
doubled Cape San Lucas, the survey of the west coast of California 
was begun from that point. It would be needless to endeavor to 
trace the progress of Cabrillo along this coast, or to enumerate the 
many capes and bays mentioned in the account of his voyage, 
nearly all of which places, so far as they can be identified, are now 
distinguished by names entirely different from those bestowed on 
them by him. By the middle of August, he had advanced beyond 
the limits of the supposed discoveries of Ulloa ; and, in November, 
after having examined the coast as far north as the 38th degree of 
latitude, he was driven back, and forced to take refuge in a harbor 
named by him Port Possession, situated in the Island of San 
Bernardo, one of the Santa Barbara group, near the main land, 
under the 34th parallel. There Cabrillo, who had been for some 
time sick, sank under the fatigues of the voyage, on the 3d of 
January, 1543, leaving the command to the pilot, Bartolome Ferrelo. 

The new commander, being no less zealous and determined than 
his predecessor, resolved, if possible, to accomplish the main objects 
of the expedition before returning to Mexico. He accordingly, 
soon after, sailed from Port Possession towards the north, and, on 
the 26th of February, reached a promontory situated under the 41st 
parallel, to which he gave the name of Cabo de Fortunas, (Cape 
of Perils, or Stormy Cape,) from the dangers encountered in its 
vicinity. On the 1st of March, the ships were in the latitude of 
44 degrees, as determined by a solar observation ; but, on the fol- 
lowing day, they were again driven to the south ; and, the men 
being, at this time, almost worn out, by long exposure to cold and 
fatigue, without sufficient food or clothing, Ferrelo determined to go 
back to Mexico. The ships, therefore, quitted the Isle of Cedars, 
discovered by Ulloa, in the beginning of April, and, on the 14th of 
that month, they arrived at Navidad. 



1543.] EXPEDITION OF SOTO. 65 

From the accounts of this expedition which have been preserved, 
it is not easy to determine precisely how far north the American 
coast was discovered. The most northern point of land mentioned 
in those accounts is the Cape of Perils, which, though there placed 
under the 41st parallel, was probably the same soon after called 
Cape Mendocino, in the latitude of 40 degrees 20 minutes. Other 
authors, however, whose opinions are entitled to respect, pronounce 
the 43d parallel to be the northern limit of the discoveries made by 
the Spaniards in 1543.* 

Whilst these expeditions to the north-western parts of America 
were in progress, Hernando de Soto, and his band of Spanish 
adventurers, were performing their celebrated march, in quest of 
mines and plunder, through the regions extending nortii of the Gulf 
of Mexico, which were then known by the general name of Florida. 
Without attempting here to trace the line of their wanderings, 
suffice it to say, that they traversed, in various directions, the vast 
territories now composing the Southern and South- Western States 
of the American Federal Union, and descended the Mississippi in 
boats, from the vicinity of the mouth of the Arkansas to the Mex- 
ican Gulf, on which they continued their voyage, along the coast, 
to Panuco. From the accounts of the few who survived the toils 
and perils of that memorable enterprise, taken together with those 
collected by Cabeza-Vaca and Vazquez de Coronado, concerning 
the territories which they had respectively visited, it was considered 
certain that neither ivealthy nations, nor navigable passages of com- 
munication between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, were to be 
found north of Mexico, unless beyond the 40th parallel of latitude. 

The Spaniards, having arrived at these conclusions, for some time 
desisted from attempting to explore the north western section of 
the continent ; and circumstances, meanwhile, occurred, which 
impressed their government with the belief that the discovery of any 
passage facilitating the entrance of European vessels into the Pacific, 
would be deleterious to the power and interests of Spain in the New 
World. 

* Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, p. 35. See, also, Burney's 
History of Voyages in the Pacific, vol. i. p. 220. 

9 



66 



CHAPTER II. 

1543 TO 1606. 

The Spaniards conquer the Philippine Islands, and establish a direct Trade across the 
Pacific, between Asia and America — Measures of the Spanish Government to 
prevent other European Nations from settling or trading in America — These 
Measures resisted by tlie English, the French, and the Dutch — Free Traders and 
Freebooters infest the West Indies — First Voyages of the English in the Pacific — , 
Voyages of Drake and Cavendish — Endeavors of the English to discover a North- 
West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific — False Reports of the Discovery 
of such Passages — Supposed Voyages of Urdaiieta, Maldonado, and Fonts — 
Voyage of Juan de Fuca — Expeditions of Sebastian Vizcaino — Supposed Dis- 
covery of a great River in North- West America. 

Whilst the Spaniards were thus extending their dominion in 
the New World, the Portuguese were daily acquiring advantages 
in India, with which they carried on a profitable trade, by means of 
their ships sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. The Spaniards, 
viewing this increase of the power of their rivals with jealousy and 
hatred, made many endeavors, likewise, to form establishments in 
Asia ; but all their expeditions for that purpose before the middle 
of the sixteenth century, terminated disastrously. The armaments 
sent from Spain to India under Loyasa, in 1525, and from Mexico, 
under Saavedra, in the ensuing year, were entirely ineffective. In 
1542, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos crossed the Pacific with a large 
squadron from Mexico, and took possession of the Philippine Islands 
for his sovereign ; but his forces were soon after dispersed, and 
none of his vessels returned either to Europe or to America. 

In 1564, the Spaniards made another attempt to gain a footing 
in the East Indies, which was successful. The Philippine Islands 
were in that year subjugated by Miguel de Legazpi, who had been 
despatched from Mexico with a small squadron for the purpose ; 
and a discovery was also made in the course of this expedition, 
without which the conquest would have been of no value. Before 
that period, no European had ever crossed the Pacific from Asia to 
America; all who had endeavored to make such a voyage having 
confined themselves to the part of the ocean between the tropics 



1564,] IMPROVEMENTS IN THE NAVIGATION OF THE PACIFIC. 67 

where the winds blow constantly from eastern points. Three of 
Legazpi's vessels, however, under the direction of Andres de 
Urdaneta, a friar, who had in early life accompanied Magellan in 
his expedition, and had subsequently acquired great reputation as 
a navigator, by taking a northward course from the Philippine 
Islands, entered a region of variable winds, near the 40th parallel 
of latitude, and were thus enabled to reach the coast of California, 
along which the prevailing north-westers carried them speedily to 
Mexico. 

The Spaniards thus gained, what they had so long coveted, a 
position in the East Indies ; and the practicability of communicating, 
by way of the Pacific, between Asia and America, was placed 
beyond a doubt. At the same time, also, Juan Fernandes discov- 
ered the mode of navigating between places on the west coast of 
South America, by standing out obliquely to a distance from the 
continent ; and other improvements of a similar kind having been 
moreover introduced, the Spanish commerce on the Pacific soon 
became important. Large ships, called galleons, sailed annually 
from Acapulco to Manilla, in the Philippine Islands, and to Macao, 
in China, laden with precious metals and European merchandise, in 
return for which they brought back silks, spices, and porcelain, for 
consumption in America, or for transportation over the Atlantic to 
Europe ; while an extensive trade in articles equally valuable was 
carried on between Panama and the various ports of Peru and 
Chili. These voyages on the Pacific were usually long, but com- 
paratively safe, at least so far as regards exemption from injury by 
winds and waves, though the crews of the vessels often suflfered 
dreadfully from scurvy occasioned by filth and want of good water 
and provisions ; * and, as that ocean remained for some years undis- 
turbed by the presence of enemies of Spain, little care or cost was 
bestowed upon the defence, either of the vessels or of the towns on 
the coasts. 

The galleons, proceeding from Mexico to India, were wafted, by 
the invariable easterly or trade winds, directly across the ocean, in 
about three months ; in the return voyage, they often occupied 
more than double that time, and they always made the west coast 
of California, the principal points on which thus became tolerably 
well known before the end of the sixteenth century. Accounts of 

For accounts of the miseries of a voyage from Manilla to Acapulco, in 1697, see 
Gemelli Carreri's narrative, in the fourth volume of Churchill's collection of voyages, 
wliich, if not true, is very like truth. 



68 VOYAGE OF GAU. [1584. 

some of these voyages have been preserved, but they are of Uttle 
value at present, from their want of precision. One of them is a 
letter from Francisco Gali, addressed to the viceroy of Mexico, 
describing his passage from Macao to Acapulco, in 1584, in the 
course of which he sailed along the west coast of America, from the 
latitude of thirty-seven and a half degrees southward to Mexico.* 
It has, however, been maintained, on the evidence of papers found 
in the archives of the Indies,f that Gali arrived on that coast in the 
latitude of fifty-seven and a half degrees, and is therefore to be 
considered as the discoverer of the whole shore between that par- 
allel and the forty-third : but this assertion is supported by no 
evidence sufficient to overthrow the express statement of the 
navigator in his letter, the genuineness of which is not denied ; and 
Gali, moreover, there declares that the land first seen by him was 
" very high and fair, and wholly without snow,''"' which could not 
have been the case with regard to the north-west coast of America, 
under the parallel of fifty-seven and a half degrees, in the middle 
of October. In 1595, Sebastian Cermenon, in the ship San 
Augustin, on his way from Manilla to Acapulco, examined the 
same coasts, by order of the viceroy of Mexico, in search of some 
harbor in which the galleons might take refuge, and make repairs, 
or obtain water ; but nothing has been preserved respecting his 
voyage, except that his ship was lost near the Bay of San Francisco, 
south of Cape Mendocino. 

The Spanish government was, in the mean time, engaged in 
devising, and applying to its dominions in the New World, those 
measures of restriction and exclusion, which were pursued so 
rigidly, and with so little variation, during the whole period of its 
supremacy in the American continent. The great object of this 
system was simply to secure to the monarch and people of Spain 
the entire enjoyment of all the advantages which were supposed to 
be derivable from those dominions, consistently with the perpetual 
maintenance of absolute authority over them ; and, for this object, it 

* In Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 526, the letter from Gali to the viceroy is given at length, 
as "translated out of the original Spanish into Dutch, by John Huyghen Van 
Linschoten, and out of Dutch into English." In Linschoten, as in Hakluyt, thirty- 
seven and a half degrees is given as the northernmost part of the coast seen by Gali. 

t See the note in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdcs, at page 
46, in which two letters from the viceroy of Mexico to the king of Spain, relative 
to the voyage of Gali, are mentioned ; but the account there given differs in nothing, 
except as to the latitude, from that in the letter published by Linschoten and Hak- 
luyt. Humboldt adopts the opinion of the author of the Introduction, without, 
however, adding any information or reasoning on the subject. 



1570.] SPANISH GOVERNMENT OF AMERICA. 69 

was deemed expedient not only to exclude the subjects of other Euro- 
pean states from the territories claimed by Spain, — that is, from the 
whole of the New World except Brazil, — but also to prevent the 
rapid development of the resources of the Spanish provinces them- 
selves.* In these views the Spaniards have not been singular ; but 
no other power, in modern times, has employed measures so extreme 
in fulfilling them. Thus no Spaniard could emigrate to America, 
no new settlement could be formed there, and no new country or 
sea could be explored, without the express permission of the sov- 
ereign ; and, when expeditions for discovery were made, the results 
were often concealed, or tardily and imperfectly promulgated. No 
article could be cultivated or manufactured for commerce in Amer- 
ica, which could be imported from Spain ; and no intercourse could 
be carried on between the different great divisions of those posses- 
sions, or between either of them and the mother country, except in 
vessels belonging to or specially licensed by the government, or 
otherwise under its immediate supervision. With the rest of the 
world, the Spanish Americans could have no correspondence ; and 
all foreigners were prohibited, under pain of death, from touching 
the territories claimed by Spain, and even from navigating the seas 
in their vicinity. " Whoever," says Hakluyt, at the end of the 
sixteenth century, " is conversant with the Portugal and Spanish 
writers, shall find that they account all other nations for pirates, 



* The Spanish dominions in America, togetlier with the Canary and the Philippine 
Islands, formed one empire, called the Indies, of which the king of Spain was, ex 
officio, the sovereign. The territories were divided into great sections, or kingdoms, 
each entirely independent of the others, except in certain prescribed contingencies , 
the general direction of the wiiole being committed to the Supreme Council of the 
Indies, a special ministry, residing in the palace of the king, in whose name all its 
orders were issued. The larger kingdoms of the Indies were under the immediate 
government of viceroys, representing the authority and person of the sovereign ; the 
others were governed by captains-general , or by presidents, whose powers were 
more limited. All these high officers were, however, kept in check by the courts 
called Audiencias, resembling the Supreme Council in their organization and 
attributes, one or two of which were established in each kingdom. The commerce 
of those countries was under the superintendence of a board, called the House of 
Contracts of the Indies, sitting at Seville, to and from which port all expeditions, from 
and to America, were, for a long time, obliged to pass. 

The laws and regulations of the Supreme Council were, from time to time, revised ; 
and those which were to remain in force were published in a collection entitled the 
Rccopilacion de Leijes de Indias, (Compilation of Laws of the Indies,) containing 
the rules for the conduct of all the officers of the government. The provisions of 
this celebrated code are, in general, remarkable for their justice and humanity ; the 
enforcement of them, being, however, left to those who had no direct interest in the 
prosperity and advancement of the country, was most shamefully neglected. 



70 FREE TRADERS AND FREEBOOTERS. [1570. 

rovers, and thieves, which visit any heathen coast that they have 
sailed by or looked on." 

Against these exclusive regulations the English and the French 
at first murmured and protested, and then began to act. The 
English government, having thrown off its allegiance to the head of 
the Roman Catholic church, denied the validity of the Spanish 
claims founded on the papal concessions, and required from Spain 
the recognition of the rights of Englishmen to navigate any part of 
the ocean, to settle in any country not occupied by another Chris- 
tian nation, and to tiade with the Spanish American provinces. 
These demands having been resisted, Queen Elizabeth * openly, as 
well as covertly, encouraged her subjects, even in time of peace, to 
violate regulations which she pronounced unjustifiable and inhuman ; 
and the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indian seas were, in conse- 
quence, haunted by bands of daring English, who, under the 
equivocal denominations of free traders and freebooters, set at 
defiance the prohibitions of the Spaniards, as to commerce and 
territorial occupation, and plundered their ships, and the towns on 
their coasts. About the same time, the French Protestants began 
their attempts to plant colonies in Florida and Carolina, which were 
not defeated without considerable expenditure of Spanish blood and 
treasure ; and the revolt in the Netherlands, which ended in the 
liberation of the Dutch provinces, soon after produced a formidable 
addition to the forces of these irregular enemies of Spain. The 
efforts of the English, and of their government, to establish com- 
merce with the Spanish dominions in America, have, in fact, been 
the principal causes or motives of nearly all the wars between those 
nations since the middle of the sixteenth century. In these efforts 
the English have constantly persevered ; and the Spanish govern- 
ment has resolutely opposed them, during peace, during war, and 



* Queen Elizabeth's reply to the Spanish ambassador, who complained of the 
plunder of one of his sovereign's vessels by the English, in the West Indies, during 
peace between the two nations, is characteristic of her disposition, as well as reason- 
able. She said " that the Spaniards had drawn these inconveniences upon themselves, 
by their severe and unjust dealings in their American commerce ; for she did not 
understand why either her subjects, or those of any other European prince, should 
be debarred from traflic in the Indies ; that, as she did not acknowledge the Spaniards 
to have any title, by donation of the bishop of Rome, so she knew no riglit they had 
to any places other than those they were in actual possession of; for that their 
having touched only here and there upon a coast, and given names to a few rivers 
or capes, were such insignificant tilings as could in no ways entitle them to a pro- 
priety farther than in the parts where they actually settled, and continued to inhabit." 
— Camden's Annals of Queen Elizabeth's Reign, for 1580. 



1570.] ALARMS AND PROHIBITIONS OF THE SPANIARDS. 71 

even during alliance between the two powers, until the last moment 
of the existence of the Spanish authority in the American continent. 

Could Spain have so long retained the possession of her colonies 
in America, if she had adopted any other system with regard to 
them ? 

The Pacific was, for some years, preserved from the ravages of 
these daring adventurers, by the dread of the difficulties and 
dangers attending the passage of vessels into that ocean, from the 
Atlantic, through the Strait of Magellan ; and the Spanish govern- 
ment began to regard as bulwarks of defence those natural 
obstacles to maritime intercourse between Europe and the 
western side of America, to remove or counteract which so many 
efforts had been previously made. Thenceforward, the expeditions 
of the Spaniards, in search of new channels connecting the two 
oceans, were undertaken only with the object of securing the 
passage, if it should be found, against the vessels of other 
nations ; and the heaviest penalties were denounced against all 
persons who should attempt, or even propose, to form artificial 
communications by canals across the continent.* These circum- 
stances, on the other hand, served to stimulate the enemies 
of Spain in their endeavors to discover easier routes to the Pacific ; 
to effect which, the Dutch and the English navigators perseveringly 
labored, during the latter years of the sixteenth and the beginning 
of the seventeenth centuries. 

In the mean time, the reports of the extent and value of the 
Spanish commerce on the Pacific, and of the wealth accumulated 
in the towns on the American coasts of that ocean, overcame all 
the fears of the English, who at length spread their sails on its 
waters, and carried terror and desolation along its coasts. 



* Alcedo, in his Geographical and Historical Dictionary of the West Indies, under 
the head Isthmus, says, "In the time of Philip II., it was proposed to cut a canal 
through the Isthmus of Panama, for the passage of ships from one ocean to the 
other; and two Flemisli engineers were sent to examine the place, with that object. 
They, however, found the obstacles insuperable ; and the Council of the Indies at 
the same time represented to the king the injuries wliich such a canal would occasion 
to the monarchy ; in consequence of which, his majesty decreed that no one should 
in future attempt, or even propose, such an undertaking, under pain of death." 

The same author, speaking of the River Strata, in New Granada, emptying into 
the Atlantic, — between which and the San Juan, falling into the Pacific, it was also 
proposed to make a canal, — says, "The Atrato is navigable for many leagues; but 
all persons are forbidden, under pain of death, from navigating it, in order to prevent 
the injuries which New Grenada would sustain, from the facility thus afforded for 
entering its territory." 



72 VOYAGE OF DRAKE. [1577. 

The first irruption of the English into the Pacific was made in 
1575, by a party of freebooters, under John Oxenham, who crossed 
the isthmus a httle west of Panama, and, having then built a vessel 
on the southern side, took many valuable prizes before any attempt 
could be made, by the Spaniards, to arrest their progress. They, 
however, in a few months, fell successively into the hands of their 
enemies, and were nearly all executed with ignominy at Panama. 
Their fall was, three years afterwards, signally avenged by another 
body of their countrymen, under the command of the greatest 
naval captain of the age. It is scarcely necessary to say that this 
captain could be no other than Francis Drake, of whose celebrated 
voyage around the world — the first ever performed by one crew in 
one vessel — an account will be here given, as he, in the course 
of it, visited the north-west side of America, and is supposed, 
though erroneously, as will be proved, to have made important 
discoveries in that quarter. 

Drake sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of December, 1577, 
with five small vessels, which had been procured and armed by 
himself and other private individuals in England, ostensibly for 
a voyage to Egypt, but really for a predatory cruise against the 
dominions and subjects of Spain. The governments of England 
and Spain were then, indeed, at peace with each other : but mutual 
hatred, arising from causes already explained, prevailed between the 
two nations ; and the principles of general law or morals were not, 
at that period, so refined as to prevent Queen Elizabeth from favor- 
ing Drake's enterprise, with the real objects of which she was well 
acquainted. 

For some months after leaving England, Drake roved about the 
Atlantic, without makihg any prize of value : he then refitted his 
vessels at Port San Julian, on the eastern coast of Patagonia ; and 
he succeeded in conducting three of them safely through the dread- 
ed Strait of Magellan, into the Pacific, which he entered in Sep- 
tember, 1578. Scarcely, however, was this accomplished, ere the 
little squadron was dispersed by a storm ; and the chief of the 
expedition was left with only a schooner of a hundred tons' burden, 
and about sixty men, to prosecute his enterprise against the power 
and wealth of the Spaniards on the western side of America. 

Notwithstanding these disheartening occurrences, Drake did not 
hesitate to proceed to the parts of the coast occupied by the Span- 
iards, whom he found unprepared to resist him, either on land or on 
sea. He accordingly plundered their towns and ships with little 



1579.] VOYAGE OF DRAKE. 73 

difficulty ; and so deep and lasting was the impression produced by 
his achievements, that, for more than a century afterwards, iiis name 
was never mentioned in those countries without exciting feelings of 
horror and detestation. 

At length, in the spring of 1579, Drake, having completed his 
visitation of the Spanish American coasts, by the plunder of the 
town of Guatulco, on the south side of Mexico, and filled his vessel 
with precious spoils, became anxious to return to England ; but, 
having reason to expect that the Spaniards would intercept him, 
if he should attempt to repass Magellan's Strait, he resolved to 
seek a northern route to the Atlantic. Accordingly, on quitting 
Guatulco, he steered west and north-west, and, having sailed in 
those directions about 1400 leagues, he had, in the beginning of 
June, advanced beyond the 42d degree of north latitude, where 
his men, being thus " speedily come out of the extreme heat, found 
the air so cold, that, being pinched with the same, they complained 
of the extremity thereof." He had, in fact, reached the part of 
the Pacific, near the American coasts, where the winds blow con- 
stantly and violently, during the summer, from the north and north- 
west, accompanied, generally, by thick fogs, which obscure the 
heavens for many days, and even weeks, in succession ; and, find- 
ing, these difficulties increase, as he went farther, " he thought it 
best, for that time, to seek the land." He accordingly soon made 
the American coast, and endeavored to approach it. so as to anchor ; 
but, finding no proper harbor there, he sailed along the shore south- 
ward, until the 17th of the month, when " it pleased God to send 
him into a fair and good bay, witliin 38 degrees towards the line." * 

In this bay the English remained five weeks, employed in re- 
fitting their vessel, and obtaining such supplies for their voyage 
as the country oflTered. The natives, " having their houses close by 
the water's side," at first exhibited signs of hostility: but they 
were soon conciliated by the kind and forbearing conduct of the 
strangers ; and their respect for Drake increased, so that, when 
they saw him about to depart, they earnestly prayed him to con- 
tinue among them as their king. The naval hero, though not 
disposed to undertake, in person, the duties of sovereignty over a 

* These quotations are from the Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, by Francis 
Pretty, one of the crew of Drake's vessel, written at the request of Hakhiyt, and 
published by him in 1589. It is a plain and succinct account of what the writer saw, 
or believed to have occurred, during the voyage, and bears all the marks of truth 
and authenticity. 

10 



74 DRAKE MADE KING OF NEW ALBION. [1579. 

tribe of naked or skin-clad savages, nevertheless " thouglit not 
meet to reject the crown, because he knew not what honor or profit 
it might bring to his own country ; whereupon, in the name, and 
to the use, of her majesty, Queen Elizabeth, he took the crown, 
sceptre, and dignity, of the country into his own hands, wishing 
that the riches and treasure thereof might be so conveniently 
transported, for the enriching her kingdom at home." The coro- 
nation accordingly took place, with most ludicrous solemnities, 
and Drake bestowed on his dominions the name of JS'eiv Albion, 

The vessel having been refitted, Drake erected on the shore a 
pillar, bearing an inscription, commemorating the fact of this 
cession of sovereignty ; and, on the 22d of July, he took leave of 
his worthy subjects, to their great regret. Having, however, by 
this time, abandoned all idea of seeking a northern passage to the 
Atlantic, he sailed directly across the Pacific, and thence, through 
the Indian Seas, and around the Cape of Good Hope, to England, 
where he arrived on the 26th of September, 1580. 

With regard to the harbor on the North Pacific side of America, 
in which Drake repaired his vessel, nothing can be learned from 
tiie accounts of his expedition which have been published, except 
that it was situated about the 3Sth degree of latitude, and that a 
cluster of small islets lay in the ocean, at a short distance from 
its mouth ; which description will apply equally to the Bai/ of 
Sayi Francisco, and to the Bay of Bodega, a few leagues farther 
north. 

As to the extent of the portion of the north-west coast of 
America seen by Drake, the accounts diftbr. Before examining 
them, it should be first observed, that, from the great navigator him- 
self, nothing whatsoever has descended to us, either as written by 
him, or as reported by others on his authority, respecting his voyage 
in the North Pacific ; on the circumstances of which, all the informa- 
tion is derived from two narratives, — the one proceeding entirely 
from a person who had accompanied Drake in his expedition, and 
published in 1589, during the life of the hero, — the other compiled 
from various accounts, and not given to the world until the middle 
of the following century. 

In the first-mentioned of those narratives, called the Famous 
Voyage from which the preceding quotations are made, the vessel 
is represented as being in the forty-third degree of latitude on the 
ffth of June, wiien it was determined to seek the land ; but on 
what day, or in what latitude, the coast was discovered, is not stated. 



1579.] PART OF NORTH-WEST COAST SEEN BY DRAKE. 75 

In the other narrative, called the World Encompassed,* it is declared 
that the vessel was in latitude of 42 degrees on the third of June, 
and that, on the fifth of the same month, she anchored near the land 
of America, in a "bad bay," in latitude oi forty-eight degrees, from 
which being soon driven by the violence of the winds, she ran 
along the coast, southward, to the harbor where she was refitted. 
Thus the two accounts differ as to the vessels' position on the 
fifth of June, on which day it is rendered probable, from both, that 
the land was first seen. Hakluyt, who took great interest in all that 
related to the west coast of North America, as well as to Drake, 
gives the 43d parallel, in many places in his works, as the northern 
limit of his countrymen's discoveries ; and the same opinion is 
maintained by Camden, Purchas, De Laet, Ogilby, Heylin, Locke, 
Dr. Johnson, and every other author who wrote on the subject 
before the middle of the last century — except the two following: 
The celebrated navigator John Davis, in his World's Hydrographi- 
cal Discovery, published in 1595, asserts that, "after Sir Francis 
Drake was entered into the South Sea, he coasted all the western 
shores of America, until he came to the septentrional latitude of 
48 degrees ; " this assertion, however, carries with it its own refu- 
tation, as it is nowhere else pretended that Drake saw any part of 
the west coast of America between the 17th degree of latitude and 
the 38th. Sir William Monson, another great naval authority of 
that age, declares, in his Tracts, first printed in 1712, that, "from 
the 16th of April to the 15th of June, Drake sailed without seeing 
land, and arrived in 48 degrees, thinking to find a passage into our 
seas ; " but, unfortunately for Sir William's consistency, he main- 
tains, in many other parts of his Tracts, that " Cape Mendocino 
[near the 40th parallel] is the farthest land discovered," and " the 
farthermost known land." In the Life of Sir Francis Drake, pub- 
lished in 1750, in the Biographia Britannica, the opinion that he 

* " The World Encompassed, by Sir Francis Drake, collected out of the Notes of 
Mr. Francis Fletcher, Preacher, in this Employment, and compared with divers 
others' Notes that went in the same Voyage." According to Barrow, it was prepared 
by a nephew of the navigator, shortly after his death ; it was, however, not published 
until 1G52. It may be found at length in Osborne's Collection of Voyages, vol. ii. 
p. 434. It is a long and diffuse account, filled with dull and generally absurd specula- 
tions, and containing, moreover, a number of statements which are positive and 
evidently wilful falsehoods ; yet it contains scarcely a single fact not related in the 
Famous Voyage, from which many sentences and paragraphs are taken verbatim, 
while others convey the same meaning in difi'erent terms. The journal, or supposed 
journal, of Fletcher remains in manuscript in the British Museum ; and from it were 
derived the false statements above mentioned, according to Barrow, who consulted it. 



76 PART OF NORTH-WEST COAST SEEN BY DRAKE. [1579, 

discovered the American coast to the 48th degree was again brought 
forward, and it has been since admitted generally by British writers. 
Burney, who has examined the question at length in his History of 
Voyages in the South Sea, published in 1803, pronounces that 
" the part of the coast discovered by Drake is to be reckoned as 
beo-inning immediately to the north of Cape Mendocino, and ex- 
tending to 48 degrees of north latitude," — on the authority of the 
World Encompassed, especially of the assertion in that narrative 
that " the English searched the coast diligently even unto the 48th 
degree, yet they found not the land to trend so much as one point, 
in any place, towards the east." Burney, however, with his usual 
want of candor, omits to quote the remainder of the sentence, — 
" but rather running on continually north-west, as if it went directly 
to meet with Asia," — well knowing that it destroyed the value of 
the evidence in the first part ; for the west coast of America no- 
where, between the 40th and the 48th degrees of latitude, runs 
north-west, its course being nearly due north. Lastly, Barrow, in 
his Life and Times of Sir Francis Drake, which appeared in 1843, 
presents his hero as the discoverer of the west coast of America 
from the 38th to the 48th parallels, without giving the slightest inti- 
mation that any doubt on the subject had ever existed or could exist. 
To conclude : the World Encompassed is the only direct authority 
for the belief that Drake, in 1579, discovered the west coast of 
America as far north as the 48th degree of latitude. In examining 
the particulars of that account, we find that, between the 1st and 
the 5th of June, in two days, the English vessel sailed through six 
degrees of latitude, northward, with the wind blowing constantly 
and violently from that very quarter — a rate of sailing which could 
scarcely be attained at the present time under similar circumstances. 
We moreover learn, that, during the whole period in which the lati- 
tudes are given thus positively, the heavens were obscured by thick 
fogs, and the vessel constantly agitated by storms, in either of which 
cases alone, no observations worthy of reliance could have been 
made with the instruments then in use. When we also take into 
consideration the direct falsehoods, in the same narrative, respect- 
ing the cold in that part of the Pacific, which is represented as so 
intense, during the months of June and July, that meat was frozen 
so soon as taken from the fire, and ropes and sails were stiffened by 
ice, we may safely conclude that further evidence is requisite to 
establish the certainty that Drake, in 1579, saw any part of the west 
coast of North America which had not been seen by the Spaniards 
in 1513. 



1578.] cavendish's expedition. 77 

The success of Drake's enterprise encouraged other English 
adventurers to attempt similar expeditions through the Straits of 
Magellan ; and it stimulated the navigators of his nation in their 
efforts to discover northern passages into the Pacific Ocean. Of 
tlieir predatory excursions, none were attended with success, except 
that of the famous Thomas Cavendish, or Candish, who rendered 
his name almost as terrible to the Spaniards as that of Drake, by 
liis ravages on the west coasts of America, during his voyage of 
circumnavigation of the globe, in 1587. In this voyage. Cavendish 
lay, for some time, near Cape San Lucas, the southern extremity 
of California, and there captured the Manilla galleon Santa Anna, 
on her way, with a rich cargo of East India goods, to Acapulco, 
which he set on fire, after plundering her, and landing her crew on 
the coast. The unfortunate Spaniards, thus abandoned in a desert 
country, must soon have perished, had they not succeeded in 
repairing their vessel, which was driven ashore near them, after the 
extinction of the flames by a storm, and sailing in her to a port on 
the opposite coast of Mexico. Among these persons were Juan 
de Fuca and Sebastian Vizcaino, of each of whom much will be 
said in this chapter. 

About this time, the search for northern passages of communi- 
cation between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans was begun by 
the English ; * and it was prosecuted at intervals, by the navigators 
of that nation and of Holland, during nearly sixty years, after 
which it was abandoned, or rather suspended. In the course of 
the voyages undertaken for this object, eastward as well as west- 
ward from the Atlantic, many important geographical discoveries 
and improvements in the art and science of navigation were 
effected ; and the persons thus engaged acquired an honorable and 
lasting reputation, by their skill, perseverance against difficulties, 
and contempt of dangers. The Spanish government was, at' the 
same period, according to the direct testimony derived from its 
official acts, and the accounts of its historians, kept in a state of 
constant alarm, by these efforts of its most determined foes to 
penetrate into an ocean of which it claimed the exclusive posses- 
sion ; and the uneasiness thus occasioned was, from time to time, 
increased, by rumors of the accom})lislunent of the dreaded 
discovery. 

These rumors were, for the most part, in confirmation of the 

The first voyage made from England, with the express object of seeking a north 
west passage to the racific, was that of Martin Frobisher, in 1576. 



78 REPORTED DISCOVERY OF URDANETA. [1560. 

existence of the passage called the Strait of Ajiian, joining the 
Atlantic, under the 60th parallel of north latitude, through which 
Cortereal was said to have sailed, in 1500, into a great western sea ; 
and those who pretended to have made northern voyages from cither 
ocean to the other, generally asserted that they had passed through 
the Strait of Anian. The accounts of all such voyages yet made 
public are now known to be as false, with regard to the principal 
circumstances related, as those of the discovery of the philosopher's 
stone and the elixir vitae, current at the same period in Europe ; 
and the former, like the latter, had their origin, generally, in the 
knavery or the vanity of their authors, though some of them were 
evidently mere fictions, invented for the purpose of exercising 
ingenuity, or of testing the credulity of the public. But, as tlie 
conviction of the possibility of transmuting all other metals into 
gold, and of prolonging life indefinitely, led to the knowledge of 
many of the most important facts in chemistry, so did the belief in 
the existence of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific serve to accelerate the progress of geographical discovery 
and scientific navigation. 

Among those who were earliest believed to have accomplished 
northern voyages from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or vice versa, was 
the celebrated Friar Andres de Urdaneta, the discoverer of the mode 
of navigating the Pacific from east to west. " One Salvatierra, a 
gentleman of Victoria, in Spain, that came by chance out of the 
West Indies into Ireland, in 1568,"* there assured Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert and Sir Henry Sydney, that Urdaneta had, more than 
eight years previous, told him, in Mexico, " that he came from Mar 
del Siir [the Pacific] into Germany through the northern passage, 
and showed Salvatierra a sea-card, [chart,] made by his own expe- 
rience and travel in that voyage, wherein was plainly set down and 
described the north-west passage." This was, however, most proba- 
bly, a falsehood or amplification on the part of Salvatierra, to induce 
Sir Humphrey to employ him on a voyage which he then projected, 
as nothing appears in the history or character of Urdaneta to justify 
the belief that he would have made such a declaration. In the 
archives of the Council of the Indies,! which have been examined 



* "A Discourse to prove a Passage by the North- West to Cathaia [China] and the 
East Indies, by Sir lluniphrey Gilbert," first published in 1576, and republished by 
JIakluyt, in his "Voyages, Navigations, Traffics, and Discoveries, of the English 
Nation." See the reprint of Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 32. 

t Introduction to the Journal of (jaliauo and Valdes, p. 3G. 



1583.] PRETENDED VOYAGE OF MALDONADO. 79 

with reference to this matter, are many original papers by Urdaneta, 
in which he mentions a report, that some Frenchmen had sailed 
from the Atlantic, beyond the 70th degree of north latitude, through 
a passage opening into the Pacific, near the 50th degree, and thence 
to China; and he recommends that measures should be taken, 
without delay, to ascertain the trutii of the report, and, if the 
passage should be found, to establish fortifications at its mouth, in 
order to prevent other nations from using it to the injury of 
Spain. 

In 1574, an old pilot, named Juan Ladrillero, living at Colima, 
in Mexico, pretended that he had, in his youth, sailed through a 
passage, from the Atlantic, near Newfoundland, into the Pacific ; 
and other assertions, to the same effect, were made by various other 
individuals, either from a desire to attract notice, or with the view 
of obtaining emolument or employment. 

The most celebrated fiction of this class is the one of which 
Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado is the hero. This person, a Portu- 
guese by birth, who iiad written some extravagant works on 
geography and navigation, and pretended to have discovered a 
magnetic needle without variation, presented to the Council of the 
Indies, in 1609, a memoir or narrative of a voyage from Lisbon to 
the Pacific, through seas and channels north of America, which he 
declared that he himself had accomplished in 1588, accompanied 
by a petition that he should be rewarded for his services, and be 
intrusted with the command of forces, to occupy the passage, and 
defend its entrance against other nations. This proposition was 
instantly rejected by the Council : but some of the papers relating 
to it were retained ; and two manuscripts are now preserved, the 
one in the library of the duke of Infantado, at Madrid, the other 
in the Ambrosian library, at Milan, each purporting to be the origi- 
nal memoir presented by Maldonado. 

These papers are each entitled " A Relation of the Discovery of the 
Strait of Anian, made by me, Captain Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado, 
in the Year 1588 ; in which is described the Course of the Navigation, 
the Situation of the Place, and the Manner of fortifying it ; " and 
their contents are nearly the same, except that the Milan paper 
is, in some places, more concise than the other, from which it seems 
to have been, in a manner, abridged. Upon the whole, there is 
reason to believe the Madrid document to be a true copy of the 
memoir presented by Maldonado ; thougii it has been pronounced, 
by one who has examined the subject with much care, to be a 



80 PRETENDED VOYAGE OF MALDONADO. [1588. 

fabrication of a later date.* Whether the fabrication, as it un- 
doubtedly is, proceeded from Maldonado, or from some other 
person, is of no importance at the present day. A few extracts 
will serve to show its general character, and to bring to view the 
opinions entertained in Europe, during the seventeenth century, 
with regard to the northern parts of America. 

After stating the advantages which Spain might derive from a 
northern passage between the two oceans, and the injury which she 
might sustain, were it left open to other nations, Maldonado proceeds 
thus to describe the voyage : — 

"Departing from Spain, — suppose from Lisbon, — the course 
is north-west, for the distance of 450 leagues, when the ship will 
have reached the latitude of 60 degrees, where the Island of 
Friesland f will be seen, commonly called File, or Fule : it is an 
island somewhat smaller than Ireland. Thence the course is west- 
ward, on the parallel of 60 degrees, for 180 leagues, which will 
bring the navigator to the land of Labrador, where the strait of that 
name, or Davis's Strait, begins, the entrance of which is very wide, 
being somewhat more than 30 leagues : the land on the coast of 
Labrador, which is to the west, is very low ; but the opposite side 
of the mouth of the strait consists of very high mountains. Here 
two openings appear, between which are these high mountains. 
One of the passages runs east-north-east, and the other north- 
west ; the one running east-north-east, which is on the right hand, 
and looks towards the north, must be left, as it leads to Greenland, 
and thence to the Sea of Friesland. Taking the other passage, and 
steering north-west 80 leagues, the ship will arrive in the latitude 

* See a review, supposed to be written by Barrow, of the manuscript found at 
Milan by Carlo Amoretti, in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1816. A 
translation of the most material parts of that paper may be found in Burney's 
History of Voyages in the Pacific, vol. 5, p. 167. A translation of the whole of the 
Madrid document, with copies of the maps and plans annexed to it, is given by 
Barrow, at the conclusion of his Chronological History of Voyages in the Arctic 
Regions. See, also, the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, p. 49. 
The reviewer above mentioned " suspects this pretended voyage of Maldonado to be 
the clumsy and audacious forgery of some ignorant German, from the circumstance 
of 15 leagues to the degree being used in some of the computations;" but the 
courses are not laid down with so much exactness in the account, as to warrant the 
assertion that 15 leagues are employed, instead of 17:^, which would have been the true 
subdivision of the degree of latitude in Spanish leagues. 

t An island of this name was lono- supposed to exist near the position here assigned 
to it, on the faith of an apocryphal account of some voyages which were said to 
have been made in the North Atlantic about the year 1400, by the brothers Antonio 
and Nicolo Zeno, of Venice, friesland has been, by some, considered as identical 
with the Feroe Islands. 



1588.] PRETENDED VOYAGE OF MALDONADO. 81 

of 64 degrees. There, the strait takes another turn to the north, 
continuing one hundred and twenty leagues, as far as the latitude 
of 70 degrees, when it again turns to the north-west, and runs in 
that direction ninety leagues, to the 75th degree of latitude, near 
which the whole of the Strait of Labrador will have been passed ; 
that is to say, the strait begins at 60 degrees, and ends at 75 de- 
grees, being two hundred and ninety leagues in length, and having 
three turns, the first and last of which run north-west and south- 
east, and the middle one north and south, being sometimes narrower 
than twenty leagues, and sometimes wider than forty, and contain- 
ing many bays and sheltering places, which might be of service in 
cases of necessity. ******** 

" Having cleared the Strait of Labrador, we began to descend 
from that latitude, steering west-south-west, and south-west, three 
hundred and fifty leagues, to the 71st degree of latitude, when we 
perceived a high coast, without being able to discover whether it 
was part of the continent, or an island ; but we remarked that, if it 
were the continent, it must be opposite the coast of New Spain 
From this land we directed our course west-south-west four hundred 
and forty leagues, until we came to the 60th degree, in which par- 
allel we discovered the Strait of Anian. * * * * 

" The strait which we discovered in 60 degrees, at the distance of 
one thousand seven hundred and ten leagues from Spain, appears, 
according to ancient tradition, to be that named by geographers, in 
their maps, the Strait of Anian; and, if it be so, it must be a strait 
having Asia on the one side, and America on the other, which seems 
to be the case, according to the following narration : — 

" As soon as we had cleared the strait, we coasted along the shores 
of America for more than one hundred leagues south-westward, to 
the 55th degree of latitude, on which coast there were no inhab- 
itants, nor any opening, indicating the vicinity of another strait, 
through which the South Sea, flowing into the North, might insulate 
that part ; and we concluded that all that coast belonged to 
America, and that, continuing along it, we might soon reach Qui- 
vira and Cape Mendocino. We then left this coast, and, sailing 
towards the west four days, with the wind a-bcam, so that we made 
thirty leagues a day, we discovered a very high land, and continued 
along the coast, from which we kept at a safe distance, always in the 
open sea, sailing, at one time, to the north-east, at others towards 
north-north-east, and again to the north, whence it seemed to us 
that the coast ran north-east and south-west. We were unable 
11 



82 PRETENDED VOYAGE OF MALDONADO. [1588. 

to mark any particular points, on account of our distance from 
the land ; and we can, therefore, only affirm that it is inhabited, 
nearly to the entrance of the strait, as we saw smoke rising up in 
many places. This country, according to the charts, must belong to 
Tartary, or Cathaia, [China ;] and at the distance of a few leagues 
from the coast must be the famed city of Cambalu, the metropolis 
of Tartary. Finally, having followed the direction of this coast, 
we found ourselves at the entrance of the same strait of Anian, 
which, fifteen days before, we had passed through to the open sea; 
this we knew to be the South Sea, where are situated Japan, 
China, the Moluccas, India, New Guinea, and the land discovered 
by Captain Quiros, with all the coast of New Spain and Peru. * * 

" The Strait of Anian is fifteen leagues in length, and can 
easily be passed with a tide lasting six hours ; for those tides 
are very rapid. There are, in this length, six turns, and two 
entrances, which lie north and south ; that is, bear from each other 
north and south. The entrance on the north side (through which 
we passed) is less than half a quarter of a league in width, and 
on each side are ridges of high rocks ; but the rock on the side of 
Asia is higher and steeper than the other, and hangs over, so that 
nothing falling from the top can reach its base. The entrance into 
the South Sea, near the harbor, is more than a quarter of a league 
in width, and thenc.e the passage runs in an oblique direction, 
increasing the distance between the two coasts. In the middle of 
the strait, at the termination of the third turn, is a great rock, and 
an islet, formed by a rugged rock, three estadias [about one 
thousand one hundred feet] in height, more or less ; its form is 
round, and its diameter may be two hundred paces ; its distance 
from the land of Asia is very little ; but the sea, on that side, is 
full of slioals and reefs, and can only be navigated by boats. The 
distance between this islet and the continent of America is less 
than a quarter of a league in width ; and, although its channel is so 
deep that two or even three ships might sail abreast through it, two 
bastions might be built on the banks with little trouble, which 
would contract the channel to within the reach of a musket shot. 

" In the harbor in which our ship anchored, at the entrance of 
the strait, on the south side, we lay from the beginning of April to 
the middle of June, when a large vessel, of eight hundred tons' 
burden, came there from the South Sea, in order to pass the strait. 
Upon this, we put ourselves on our guard ; but, having come to an 
understanding with her, I found them willing to give us some 



1588.] PRETENDED VOYAGE OP MALDONADO. 83 

of their merchandise, the greater part of which consisted of articles 
similar to those manufactured in China, such as brocades, silks, porce- 
lain, feathers, precious stones, pearls, and gold. These people 
seemed to be Hanseatics, who inhabit the Bay of St. Nicholas, or 
the port of St. Michael, [Archangel, on the White Sea.] In order 
to understand one another, we were forced to speak Latin, those of 
our party who understood that language talking with tliose on board 
the ship who were also acquainted with it. They did not seem to 
be Catholics, but Lutherans. They said they came from a large city, 
more than one hundred leagues from the strait ; and, though I cannot 
exactly remember its name, I think they called it Rohr, or some 
such name, which they said had a good harbor, and a navigable 
river, and was subject to the great khan, as it belonged to Tartary, 
and that, in that port, they left another ship belonging to their 
country. We could learn no more from them, as they acted with 
great caution, and little confidence, being afraid of our company ; 
wherefore we parted from them, near the strait, in the North Sea, 
and set sail towards Spain." 

The preceding extracts, from a translation of the manuscript at 
Madrid, will suffice to show the course which the Portuguese pre- 
tended to have taken, in 1588. The remainder of the paper is 
devoted to descriptions of the supposed strait, and plans for its 
occupation and defence by Spain ; nothing being said as to the 
circumstances which induced the navigators to return to Europe by 
the same route, instead of pursuing their course to some Spanish 
port on the Pacific. It is needless to use any arguments to prove 
that no such voyage could have been ever made ; as we know that 
the only connection by water between the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
north of America, is through the Arctic Sea and Bering's Strait, 
which latter passage is more than sixteen leagues in width, and is sit- 
uated near the 65th degree of latitude. It has, however, been sug- 
gested, and it is not improbable, that, before the period when 
Maldonado presented his memoir to the Council of the Indies, some 
voyage, of which we have no account, may have been made in the 
North Pacific,* as far as the entrance of the gulf called Cook's 
Inlet, and that this entrance, situated under the 60th parallel of 
latitude, may have been supposed, by the navigator, to be the 
western termination of the long-sought Strait of Anian. 

The story certainly attracted considerable attention at the time 

* Aitlcli' on the north-west passage, hi tlic Quarterly, for October, 131G, above 
niciUioiicd. 



84 STORY OF THE VOYAGE OF FONTE. [1640. 

when it was put forth, and allusions are made to it by several 
Spanish autjiors of the seventeenth century ; it had, liowever, been 
entirely forgotten when the French geographer M. Buache, having 
obtained a copy of the Madrid manuscript, endeavored to establish 
the truth of the most material points, in a paper read by him before 
the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, on the 13th of November, 
1790. At his request, the archives of the Indies were examined, 
in search of documents relating to the supposed voyage ; and the 
commanders of Spanish ships, then employed in the surveying 
the north-west coasts of America, were instructed to endeavor 
to find the entrance of the Strait of Anian, near the 60th 
degree of latitude. These endeavors proved vain, and the 
name of Maldonado had again sunk into oblivion, when it was 
again, in 1812, brought before the world by Signor Amoretti, of 
Milan, who found, in the Ambrosian library, in that city, the man- 
uscript already mentioned, and published a French translation of 
it, with arguments in support of the truth of its contents. So far 
as is known, the falsehoods of Maldonado have injured no one, 
and they were ultimately productive of great good ; for it was 
while engaged, by order of the Spanish government, in examining 
the archives of the Indies respecting this pretended voyage, that 
Navarrete found those precious documents, relating to the expedi- 
tions of Columbus and other navigators of his day, which have thrown 
so much light on the history of the discovery of the New World. 

Similar good effects have been produced by the story of the 
voyage of Admiral Pedro Bartolome de Fonte, from the Fticilic 
to the Atlantic, through lakes and rivers extendmg across North 
America, which may also be here mentioned, though it belongs 
properly to a later period of the history ; as the voyage was said to 
have been performed in 1640, and the account first appeared in a 
periodical work entitled — Monthhj Miscellany, or Memoirs of the 
Curious — published at London, in 1708. This account is very 
confused, and badly written, and is filled with absurdities and con- 
tradictions, which should have prevented it from receiving credit at 
any time since its appearance : yet, as will be shown, it was serious- 
ly examined and defended, so recently as in the middle of the last 
century, by eminent scientific men ; and some faith continued to 
be attached to it for many years afterwards. So far as its details 
can be understood, they are to the following effect : — 

Admiral Fontc sailed from Callao, near Lima, in April, 1640, 
with four vessels, under orders, from the viceroy of Peru, to repair 



1640.] STORY OF THE VOYAGE OF FONTE. 85 

to the North Pacific, for the purpose of exploring its American 
coasts, and of intercepting certain vessels which were reported to 
have been equipped at Boston, in New England, in search of a 
north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. From Callao 
he proceeded to Cape San Lucas, where he detached a vessel to 
explore the Californian Gulf; thence, continuing his voyage along 
the west coast, he passed about two hundred and sixty leagues, in 
crooked channels, among a collection of islands called by him the 
Archipelago of St. Lazarus; and beyond them he found, under 
the 53d degree of latitude, the mouth of a great river, which he 
named Rio de los Reyes — River of Kings, Having despatched his 
lieutenant, Bernardo, with one vessel, to trace the coast on the 
Pacific farther north, he entered the great river, and ascended it 
north-eastward, to a large lake, called, from the beauty of its 
shores. Lake Belle, containing many islands, and surrounded by a 
fine country, the inhabitants of which were kind and hospitable. 
On the south shore of the lake was the large town of Conasset, 
where the admiral left his vessels ; thence he proceeded, (in what 
manner he does not say,) with some of his men, down a river 
called the Parmentier, flowing from Lake Belle eastward into 
anotlier lake, to which he gave his own name, and thence, through 
a passage called the Strait of Ronquillo, in honor of one of his 
captains, to the sea. 

On entering the sea, the admiral learned, from some Indians, 
" that, a little way off, lay a great ship, where there had never been 
one before ; " and, on boarding her, he found only an old man and 
a youth, who told him that they came from the town called Boston, 
in New England. On the following day, the captain, named 
Nicholas Shapley, arrived, with the owner of the ship, Seymour 
Gibbons, "a fine gentleman, and m.ajor-general of the largest 
colony in New England, called Maltechusetts," between whom and 
the admiral a struggle of courtesy was begun. The Spanish com- 
mander had been ordered to make prize of any people seeking for 
a nort!i-west or a west passage ; but he would look on the Bosto- 
nians as merchants, trading for skins ; so he made magnificent 
presents to them all, and, having received, in return, their charts 
and journals, he went back to his ships, in Lake Belle, and thence, 
down the Rio de los Reyes, to the sea. 

Li the mean time, the lieutenant, Bernardo, had ascended another 
river, called, by him, Rio de Haro, into a lake named Lake Velasco, 
situated under the 61st degree of latitude, from which he went, in 



86 VOYAGE OF JUAN DE FUCA. [1592 

canoes, as far as the 79th degree, where the land was seen, "still 
trending north, and the ice rested on the land." He was also as- 
sured " that there was no communication out of the Atlantic Sea by 
Davis's Strait ; for the natives had conducted one of his seamen to 
the head of Davis's Strait, v.'hich terminated in a fresh lake, of about 
thirty miles in circumference, in the 80th degree of north latitude ; 
and there were prodigious mountains north of it." These accounts, 
added to his own observations, led Admiral Fonte to conclude " that 
there ivas no passage into the South Sea hij what they call the north- 
ivest passage ; " and he accordingly returjied, with his vessels, 
through the Pacific, to Peru. 

Such are the principal circumstances related in the account of 
Admiral Fonte's voyage, which was, for some time after its appear- 
ance, received as true^ and copied into all works on Northern 
America. In 1750, a French translation of the account, with a 
chart drawn from it, and a memoir, in support of its correctness, 
were presented to the Academy of Sciences of Paris by Messrs. 
Delisle and Buache, in consequence of which, the various Spanish 
repositories of papers respecting America were carefully examined, 
in search of information on the subject ; and, in all the voyages of 
discovery along the north-west coasts of the .continent, during 
the last century, endeavors were made to discover the mouth of the 
Rio de las Reyes. These labors, however, were vain. The exist- 
ence of a number of islands near the position assigned to the 
Archipelago of St. Lazarus, and of a large river, (the Stilcijie,) 
entering the ocean near the 56th parallel, indeed, seems to favor 
the supposition that some voyage, of which we have no record, 
may have been made to that part of the Pacific before 1708 ; but 
the rivers and lakes through which Fonte was said to have passed — 
his town of Conasset — and his Boston ship — are now generally 
believed to have all emanated from the brain of James Petiver, a 
naturalist of some eminence, and one of the chief contributors to 
the Monthly Miscellany. 

The account of the voyage and discoveries of Juan de Fuca, on 
the north-western side of America, in 1592, was, for a long time, 
considered as less worthy of credit than those above noticed. More 
recent examinations in that part of the world have, however, caused 
it to be removed from the class of fictions ; although it is certainly 
erroneous as regards the principal circumstance related. All the 
information respecting this voyage is derived from "A Note made hy 
Michael Loci:, the elder, touching the Strait of Sea commonly called 



1592.] VOYAGE OF JUAN DE FUCA. 87 

Fretum Anian, in the South Sea, through the North-ivcst Passage of 
Meta Incognita" — published in 1G25, in the celebrated historical 
and geograpliical collection called The Pilgrims, by Samuel 
Purchas.* 

Mr. Lock there relates that he met, at Venice, in April, 1596, 
"an old man, about sixty years of age, called, commonly, Juan de 
Fuca, but named, properly, Apostolos Valerianos, of nation a 
Greek, born in Cephalonia, of profession a mariner, and an ancient 
pilot of siiips," who, " in long talks and conferences," declared that 
he had been in the naval service of Spain, in the West Indies, forty 
years, and tliat he was one of the crew of the galleon Santa Anna, 
when she was taken by Cavendish, near Cape San Lucas, in 1587, 
on which occasion " he had lost sixty thousand ducats of his own 
goods." After his return to Mexico, he was despatched, by the 
viceroy, with three vessels, "to discover the Strait of Anian, along 
the coast of the South Sea, and to fortify that strait, to resist the 
passage and proceeding of the English nation, which were feared 
to pass through that strait into the South Sea." This expedition, 
however, proving abortive, he was again sent, in 1592, with a small 
caravel, for the same purpose, in which " he followed his course 
west and north-west," along the coasts of Mexico and California, 
" until he came to the latitude of 47 degrees ; and, there finding 
that the land trended north and north-east, with a broad inlet of 
sea, between 47 and 48 degrees of latitude, he entered thereinto, 
sailing therein more than twenty days, and found that land trending 
still sometime north-west, and north-east, and north, and also east, 
and south-eastward, and very much broader sea than was at the 
said entrance, and he passed by divers islands in that sailing ; and, 
at the entrance of this said strait, there is, on the north-west coast 
thereof, a great head-land or island, with an exceeding high pinna- 
cle, or spired rock, like a pillar thereupon. * * * * Being entered 
thus far into the said strait, and being come into the North Sea 
already, and finding the sea wide enough every where, and to be 
about thirty or forty leagues wide in the mouth of the straits, where 
he entered, he thought he had now well discharged his office ; and 
that, not being armed to resist the force of the savage people that 
might happen, he therefore set sail, and returned to Acapulco." 

The Greek went on to say that, upon his arrival in Mexico, the vice- 

* The whole note will be found among the Proofs and Illustralions, in the latter 
part of this volume, under the letter A. 



88 VOYAGE OF JUAN DE FUCA. [1592. 

roy had welcomed him, and promised him a great reward ; but that, 
after waiting in vain for two years, he had stole away to Europe, 
and, " understanding the noble mind of the queen of England, and 
of her wars against the Spaniards, and hoping that her majesty 
would do him justice for his goods lost by Captain Candish, he 
would be content to go into England, and serve her majesty in that 
voyage for the discovery perfectly of the north-west passage into 
the South Sea, if she would furnish him with only one ship of forty 
tons' burden, and a pinnace ; and that he would perform it in thirty 
days' time, from one end to the other of the strait." Mr. Lock 
says that, on receiving this account, he endeavored to interest Sir 
Walter Raleigh, and other eminent persons in England, in behalf 
of the Greek pilot, and to have him employed on a voyage such 
as he proposed to undertake ; but he was unable to do so, and, by 
the last accounts, the old man was dying in Cephalonia, in 1602. 

These are the most material circumstances respecting Juan de 
Fuca and his voyage, as related by Mr. Lock, who was an intelli- 
gent and respectable merchant engaged in the Levant trade.* 
Other English writers, of the same time, allude to the subject ; but 
they aflbrd no additional particulars, nor has any thing been since 
learned, calculated to prove directly even that such a person as 
Juan de Fuca ever existed. On the contrary, the author of the 
Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, who loses no 
opportunity to exalt the merits of his countrymen as discoverers, 
after examining many papers in the archives of the Indies, relating 
to the period given as the date of the voyage, pronounces the whole 
to be a fabrication. The account attracted little attention in Eng- 
land, and was almost unknown, out of that kingdom, until after 
the publication of the journals of the last expedition of Cook, who 
conceived that he had, by his examinations on the north-western 
coasts of America, ascertained its falsehood. More recent exami- 
nations in that quarter have, however, served to establish a strong 
presumption in favor of its authenticity and general correctness, 
so far as the supposed narrator could himself have known ; for 
they show that the geographical descriptions contained in it are 
as nearly conformable with the truth, as those of any other account 
of a voyage written in the early part of the seventeenth century. 

Thus Juan de Fuca says that, between the 47th and 48th 

* He was, for some time, the English consul at Aleppo, and was an intimate friend 
of Hakluyt, for whom lie translated the Decades of Pedro Martir, and furnished other 
papers published by that collector. 



1595.] CONFIRMATION OF FUCa's ACCOUNT. 89 

degrees of latitude, he entered a broad inlet of sea, in which he 
sailed for twenty days, and found the land trending north-west, and 
north-east, and north, and east, and south-east, and that, in this 
course, he passed numerous islands. Now, the fact is, that, between 
the 48th and 49th degrees, a broad inlet of sea does extend from 
the Pacific, eastward, apparently penetrating the American conti- 
nent to the distance of more than one hundred miles, after which 
it turns north-westward, and, continuing in that direction about 
two hundred and fifty miles farther, it again joins the Pacific Ocean. 
The difTerences as to the position and course of the inlet, between 
the two descriptions here compared, are few and slight, and are 
certainly all within the limits of supposable error on the part of the 
Greek, especially considering his advanced age, and the circum- 
stance that he spoke only from recollection ; while, on the other 
hand, the coincidences are too strong to be attributable only to 
chance. The pilot, indeed, asserts that through this inlet he sailed 
to the Atlantic, but he does not pretend that he reached any known 
coast, or previously-determined point of that ocean ; so that he is 
liable only to the charge of having made an erroneous estimate of 
the extent and value of his discovery, which he might well have 
done, without any intention to deceive, as the breadth of the North 
American continent was then unknown. 

Some false reports, such as those above mentioned, respecting 
the discovery of a northern "passage between the two oceans, and 
the existence of rich nations in its vicinity, togetiier with a desire 
to lessen the dangers of the navigation along the western side of 
California, by providing the ships in the Philippine trade with proper 
descriptions of the coasts, induced King Philip II. of Spain, in 
1595, to order that measures should be taken for a complete survey 
of it.* There were, also, other reasons for examining that part of 

* " His majesty knew that the viceroys of Mexico had endeavored to discover a 
northern passage ; and he had found, among his father's papers, a declaration of 
certain strangers, to the effect that they had been driven, by violent winds, from the 
codfish coast, [about Newfoundland,] on the Atlantic, to the South Sea, through the 
Strait of Anian, which is beyond Cape Mendocino, and had, on their way, seen a 
rich and populous city, well fortified, and inhabited by a numerous and civilized 
nation, who had treated them well ; as also many other things worthy to be seen and 
known. His majesty had also been informed that ships, sailing from China to Mex- 
ico, ran great risks, particularly near Cape Mendocino, where the storms are most 
violent, and that it would be advantageous to have that coast surveyed thence to 
Acapulco, so that the ships, mostly belonging to his majesty, should find places for 
relief and refreshment when needed." Whereupon, his majesty ordered the count 
de Monterey, viceroy of Mexico, t9 have those coasts surveyed, at his own expense, 
with all care and diligence, &c. — Torquemada, vol. i. p. 693. 

12 



90 FIRST VOYAGE OF VIZCAINO. [1596. 

the continent, as the Spaniards were then engaged in the settlement 
of New Mexico, or the country traversed by the River Bravo del 
Norte, in which their colonies extended nearly to the 40th degree 
of latitude ; and they had no clear idea of the distance between 
that region and the Pacific. 

The count de Monterey, viceroy of Mexico, in consequence, 
despatched three vessels from Acapulco, in the spring of 1596, 
under the command of Sebastian Vizcaino, a distinguished officer, 
who had been in the ship Santa Anna, when she was taken and 
burnt by Cavendish, off Cape San Lucas. Nothing, however, was 
gained by this expedition. For reasons of which we are not 
informed by the Spanish historians, Vizcaino did not proceed 
beyond the Californian Gulf, on the shores of which he endeavored 
to plant colonies, first at a place called St. Sebastian, and after- 
wards at La Paz, or Santa Cruz, where Cortes had made a similar 
attempt sixty years before : but both these places were soon aban- 
doned, on account of the sterility of the surrounding country, and 
the ferocity of the natives ; and Vizcaino returned to Mexico before 
the end of the year.* 

The viceroy had most probably hoped, by means of this voyage, 
to escape the infliction of the heavy expenses of an expedition 
such as that which he was enjoined to make by the royal decree ; 
but King Philip IL died in 1598, and one of the first acts of the 
reign of his successor, Philip IIL, was a peremptory order for the 
immediate despatch of a squadron from Mexico, to complete the 
survey of the west coasts of the continent, agreeably to the previous 
instructions. The viceroy thereupon commenced preparations for 
the purpose on an extended scale of equipment. Two large ships 
and a fragata, or small vessel, were provided at Acapulco, and 
furnished with all the requisites for a long voyage of discovery ; and, 
in addition to their regular crews, a number of pilots, draughtsmen, 
and educated priests, were engaged, forming together, says the 

* This expedition is thus noticed by Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 522 : — 
" We have seen a letter written the 8th of October, 1597, at a town called Puehla 
de los Angdes^ eighteen leagues from Mexico, making mention of the islands of Cal- 
ifornia, situated two or three hundred leagues from the main land of New Spain, in 
the South Sea, as that thither have been sent, before that time, some people to con- 
quer them, which, with loss of some twenty men, were forced back, after that they 
had well visited, and found those islands or countries to be very rich of gold and 
silver mines, and of very fair Oriental pearls, which were caught, in good quantity, 
upon one fathom and a half, passing, in beauty, the pearls of Margarita. The report 
thereof caused the viceroy of Mexico to send a citizen of Mexico, with two hundred 
aiea. to conquer the eanne." 



1602.] SECOND VOYAGE OF VIZCAINO. 91 

historian Torquemada, " the most enhghtened corps ever raised in 
New Spain." The direction of the whole expedition was intrusted 
to Sebastian Vizcaino, as captain-general, who sailed in the largest 
ship ; the other being commanded by Toribio Gomez de Corvan, 
as admiral — an office equivalent in rank to that of vice-admiral in 
the British service : the fragata was under ensign Martin de 
Aguilar.* 

All things being prepared, the vessels took their departure from 
Acapulco on the 5th of May. 160'2, and, after many troubles and 
delays at various places on the Mexican coast, they were assembled 
in the small Bay of San Bernabe, now called Port San Jose, imme- 
diately east of Cape San Lucas, the southern extremity of the 
Californian peninsula. There they remained until the 5th of July, 
when they rounded the cape, and the survey of the west coast was 
commenced from that point. The prosecution of the enterprise 
was thenceforward attended by constant difficulties : the scurvy, 
as usual, soon broke out among the crews ; and the Spaniards had 
their courage and perseverance severely tried by their " chief 
enemy, the north-west wind," which was raised up, says Torque- 
mada, " by the foe of the human race, in order to prevent the 
advance of the ships, and to delay the discovery of those countries, 
and the conversion of their inhabitants to the Catholic faith." 

Vizcaino and his followers, however, bore up nobly against all 
these obstacles, and executed the duty confided to them most 
faithfully. Proceeding slowly northward, they reached the exten- 
sive Bay of La Magdalena, between the 24th and 25th parallels of 
latitude, of which Vizcaino's survey was, until recently, the only 
one upon record ; and before the end of August, the vessels which 
had been separated almost ever since quitting Cape San Lucas, 
were again united in a harbor in the island called Isia de Cedros, 
or Isle of Cedars, by Cabrillo, but now generally known as Isla de 
Cerros, or Isle of Mountains. Continuing their examination, they 
found a bay near the 31st degree of latitude, which they named the 
Port of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, now called Poji San Quintiii, 
and said to be an excellent harbor ; and farther north they entered 
the Port San Miguel of Cabrillo, to which they assigned the appella- 

* Torquemada, vol. i. p. 694. — Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, 
p. 60. — Torquemada's accounts are derived chiefly from the Journal of Frav An- 
tonio de la Asencion, the chaplain of one of the ships. The author of the Introduc- 
tion, &c., had recourse to the original notes of the expedition, from which he con 
structed a chart of the coast surveyed. 



92 VIZCAINO BEACHES MONTEREY. [1603. 

tion of Port San Diego. There Vizcaino received accounts, from 
the natives, of people residing in the interior, who had beards, 
wore clothes, and dwelt in cities ; but he could learn no further 
particulars, and was, upon the whole, inclined to believe that, 
unless the Indians were deceiving him, these people must be the 
Spaniards recently settled in New Mexico, on the River Bravo del 
Norte. 

Having minutely surveyed Port San Diego, the Spaniards quitted 
it on the 1st of December, and sailed through the Archipelago 
of Santa Barbara, in one of the islands of which Cabrillo died 
sixty years previous ; then doubling the Cape de Galera of that 
navigator, to which they gave the name of Cape Conception, now 
borne by it, they anchored, in the middle of the month, in a 
spacious and secure harbor, near the 37th parallel, where they 
remained some time, engaged in refitting their vessels and obtaining 
a supply of water. This harbor — the Port of Pines of Cabrillo — 
was named Port Monterey by Vizcaino, in honor of the viceroy of 
Mexico; and as, before reaching it, sixteen of the crews of the 
vessels had died, and many of the others were incapable of duty 
from disease, it was determined that Corvan, the admiral, should 
return to Mexico in his ship, carrying the invalids, with letters to the 
viceroy, urging the immediate establishment of colonies and garrisons 
at San Diego and Monterey. Corvan, accordingly, on the 29th, 
sailed for Acapulco, where he arrived after a long and perilous 
voyage, with but few of his men ahve ; whilst Vizcaino, with his 
ship and the fragata, prosecuted their exploration along the coast 
towards the north. 

On the 3d of January, 1603, after the departure of Corvan, 
Vizcaino, accompanied by the small vessel under Aguilar, quitted 
Monterey ; but, ere proceeding much farther north, they were 
driven back by a severe gale, in the course of which the two 
vessels were separated. The ship took refuge in the Bay of San 
Francisco, which seems to have been then well known ; and search 
was made for the wreck of the San Augustin, which had been there 
lost, as already mentioned, in 1595, during her voyage from the 
Philippine Islands to Acapulco. Finding no traces of that vessel, 
Vizcaino again put to sea ; and, passing a promontory, which he sup- 
posed to be Cape Mendocino, he, on the 20th of January, reached 
a high, white bluff, in latitude, as ascertained by solar observation, 
of 42 degrees, which, in honor of the saint of that day, was named 
Cape San Sebastian. By this time, few of his men were fit for 



1603.] VIZCAINO RETURNS TO MEXICO. 93 

service ; the weather was stormy, the cold was severe, the pro- 
visions were nearly exhausted ; and, as the small vessel did not 
appear, the commander, with the assent of his officers, resolved to 
direct his course towards Mexico. He did so, and arrived at 
Acapulco on the 21st of March. 

The fragata, or small vessel, also reached Mexico about the same 
time, having, however, lost, by sickness, her commander, Martin de 
Aguilar, her pilot, Flores, and the greater part of her crew. Tor- 
quemada's account of her voyage, after parting with Vizcaino's 
ship, is short, and by no means clear ; but the circumstances therein 
related have attracted so much attention, that a translation of it 
should be here presented. The historian says, — 

" The fragata parted from the capitana, [Vizcaino's ship,] and, 
supposing that she had gone onward, sailed in pursuit of her. 
Being in the latitude of 41 degrees, the wind began to blow from 
the south-west ; and the fragata, being unable to withstand the 
waves on her beam, ran before the wind, until she found shelter 
under the land, and anchored near Cape Mendocino, behind a great 
rock, where she remained until the gale had passed over. When 
the wind had become less violent, they continued their voyage close 
along the shore ; and, on the 19th of January, the pilot, Antonio 
Flores, found that they were in the latitude of 43 degrees, where 
the land formed a cape or point, which was named Cape Blanco. 
From that point, the coast begins to turn to the north-west ; and 
near it was discovered a rapid and abundant river, with ash-trees, 
willows, brambles, and other trees of Castile, on its banks, which 
they endeavored to enter, but could not, from the force of the 
current. Ensign Martin de Aguilar, the commander, and Antonio 
Flores, the pilot, seeing that they had already* reached a higher 
latitude than had been ordered by the viceroy, in his instructions, 
that the capitana did not appear, and that the number of the sick 
was great, agreed to return to Acapulco ; and they did so, as I 
shall hereafter show. It is supposed that this river is the one 
leading to a great city, which was discovered by the Dutch when 
they were driven thither by storms, and that it is the Strait of 
Anian, through which the ship passed, in sailing from the North 
Sea to the South Sea ; and that the city called Quivira is in 
those parts ; and that this is the region referred to in the account 
which his majesty read, and which induced him to order this 
expedition." 

This account of the discovery of a great river, near the 43d 



94 SUPPOSED RIVER OF AGUILAR. [1603. 

degree of latitude, was, for a long time, universally credited, and 
excited many speculations. The supposed river was first, as Tor- 
quemada says, generally believed to be the long-sought Strait of 
Anian. It was then, upon the strength of a statement made by the 
captain of a Manilla ship, in 1620, universally considered as the 
western mouth of a passage, or channel, connecting the ocean with 
the northern extremity of the Californian Gulf; and, accordingly, 
during the remainder of the seventeenth century, California was 
represented, on all maps, as an island, of which Cape Blanco was 
the northern end. When this error had been corrected, the exist- 
ence of a great river, flowing from the centre of America into the 
Pacific, under the 43d parallel, was again affirmed by some geogra- 
phers ; while others again placed at this point the western entrance 
of a passage leading to the Atlantic. 

It is now certain that no such stream or channel as that which 
Aguilar is reported to have seen, falls into the Pacific within three 
degrees of the 43d parallel ; although the mouths of two small 
rivers are situated near the point where that line crosses the western 
coast of the continent. Several head-lands project into the ocean, 
not far from the positions assigned to the Capes Blanco and San 
Sebastian. The former may have been the promontory, in latitude 
of 42 degrees 52 minutes, on which Vancouver, in 1792, bestowed 
the name of Cape Orford. 

On comparing the accounts of Vizcaino's voyage with those of 
Cabrillo's, it appears that the same, or very nearly the same, por- 
tions of the American coast were seen by both commanders. The 
expedition of Vizcaino was, however, conducted in a much more 
efficient manner than the other ; and a mass of valuable informa- 
tion, respecting the geography of the western side of California, 
was collected, in the shape of notes, plans, and sketches, upon 
which were founded the first maps of that coast approaching 
to correctness. 

Vizcaino, after his return to Mexico, endeavored to prevail upon 
the viceroy to establish colonies and garrisons on the western side 
of California, at places which he recommended, in order to facili- 
tate the trade with India, and to prevent the occupation of the 
American coasts by people of other nations. His efforts, with this 
view, however, produced no effect, as the viceroys never encouraged 
such enterprises, being generally obliged to pay the costs them- 
selves ; and Vizcaino, in consequence, went to Spain, where, alter 
many years of solicitation, he at length procured the royal mandate, 



1608.] DEATH OP VIZCAINO. 95 

and a promise of means for the execution of his projects. Armed 
with these, he hastened back to Mexico, and began his prepara- 
tions ; but, while thus engaged, he was seized with a sickness, 
of which he died in 1603, and the enterprise was then aban- 
doned. 

The Spanish government, at the period of Vizcaino's expeditions, 
appears, indeed, to have been seriously interested in the exploration 
of the Pacific, with which object several voyages were made from 
Peru and Mexico. In 1595, Alvaro de Mendana discovered the 
group of islands in the southern division of that ocean, to which he 
gave the name of Mas de las Marquesas, (Islands of the Mar- 
chionesses,) in token of his admiration of the beauty and grace of 
their women. In 1605, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros visited many 
other islands in the same sea, not previously known, among which 
were, probably, those now called Otaheite and Owyhee : he also 
believed that he had ascertained the existence of a great southern 
continent, which he named Australia del Espiritu Santo ; and, like 
Vizcaino, he spent many years at Madrid, in endeavors to obtain 
from the government the command of an expedition for the occu- 
pation of this new land. 



96 



CHAPTER III 

1608 TO 1768. 



The North-West Coasts of North America remain nearly neglected during the whole 
of this Period — Efforts of the English and the Dutch to find new Passages into 
the Pacific — Discovery of Hudson's Bay and Baffin's Bay — Discovery of the 
Passage around Cape Horn — Establishment of the Hudson's Bay Trading Com- 
pany — Endeavors of the Spaniards to settle California unsuccessful — The 
Jesuits undertake the Reduction of California — Establishments of the Jesuits in 
the Peninsula, and their Expulsion from the Spanish Dominions. 



For more than a hundred and sixty years after the death of 
Vizcaino, no attempt was made, by the Spaniards, to form estab- 
lishments on the west coast of California, or to extend their 
discoveries in that part of America. 

Those countries, in the mean time, remained unknown, and 
almost entirely neglected, by the civilized world. The Spanish 
galleons, on their way from Manilla to Acapulco, annually passed 
along the coasts south of Cape Mendocino, which were described 
in Spanish works on the navigation of the Pacific ; and some spots, 
farther north, were, as will be hereafter particularly shown, visited 
by the Russians, in their exploring and trading voyages from Kamt- 
chatka: but no new information, of an exact nature, was obtained 
with regard to those regions, and they were represented on maps 
according to the fancy of the geographer, or to the degree of 
faith which he placed in the last fabrication respecting them. 
Numerous were the stories, gravely related arid published in France 
and England, of powerful nations, of great rivers, of interior 
seas, and of navigable passages connecting the Atlantic with the 
Pacific, north of California. The most remarkable of these stories 
is the account of the voyage of Admiral Fonte, already presented. 
Captain Coxton, a veteran bucanier, who flourished in the latter 
part of the seventeenth century, also declared that he had, in 1688, 
sailed from the North Pacific, far eastward, into the American 
continent, through a river which ran out of a great lake, called the 
Lake of Thoyaga, containing many islands, inhabited by a numerous 



1616.] Hudson's bat and Baffin's bay discovered. 97 

and warlike population ; and, upon the strength of the assertions of 
this worthy, the lake and river, as described by him, were laid down 
on many of the maps of that time. North-west America was, 
indeed, during the period here mentioned, the terra incognitissima, 
the favorite scene of extraordinary adventures and Utopian ro- 
mances. Bacon there placed his Atlantis ; and Brobdignag, agree- 
ably to the very precise description of its locality furnished by its 
discoverer, the accomplished 'and veracious Captain Lemuel Gulli- 
ver, must have been situated near the Strait of Fuca. 

The Atlantic Ocean, and its American coasts, and the South 
Pacific, were, however, not neglected by the Europeans during the 
seventeenth century. Soon after the termination of Vizcaino's 
labors, settlements were made, in many places on the Atlantic, 
between the Gulfs of Mexico and of St. Lawrence, by the English, 
the French, and the Dutch, generally under the protection of charters 
from the governments of those nations, in which the territories of 
the several colonies were declared to extend from the Atlantic 
westward to the Pacific ; and some of the most valuable of the 
West India Islands had fallen into the possession of the same 
powers. 

Many discoveries were likewise effected, within this period, on 
the coasts of the New World, and in the adjoining seas, some 
of which were of great and immediate importance, while the others 
served to strengthen the expectation that a north-west passage, or 
navigable channel of communication between the Atlantic and the 
Pacific, north of America, would be speedily found. Thus, in 
1608, Henry Hudson discovered, or rediscovered, the strait, and 
the bay connected by it with the Atlantic, to both of which his 
name is now attached ; and, eight years afterwards, the adventu- 
rous William Baffin penetrated, through the arm of that ocean 
now called Baffin's Bay, separating Greenland from America, into a 
passage extending westward, under the 74th parallel of latitude, 
where his ship was arrested by ice. 

The results of the voyages of Baffin, and other navigators, who 
followed the same course, were not calculated to increase the hope 
that the desired passage to tiie Pacific would be found opening 
into Baffin's Bay. Strong grounds were, however, aflforded for the 
expectation that it might be discovered in one of the arms of 
Hudson's Bay which had not been completely explored ; and, in 
consequence, the whole region surrounding the latter sea was, in 
1669, granted, by King Charles II., to an association of merchants 
13 



98 PASSAGE AROUND CAPE HORN DISCOVERED. [1616. 

and gentlemen, styled — The Company of Adventurers of England 
trading into Hudson's Bay — with the object,* expressed in the 
charter, of encouraging the search for a northern passage to the 
Pacific. 

The most important discovery made in the seventeenth century 
was that of the open sea, south of Magellan's Strait, through which 
the Dutch navigators Lemaire and Van Schouten sailed, in 1616, 
from the Atlantic into the Pacific, around the island promontory 
named by them Cape Horn, in honor of their native city in 
Holland. By means of this new route, the perils and difficulties 
of the navigation between the two oceans were so much lessened, 
that voyages from Europe to the Pacific were no longer regarded 
as very hazardous enterprises ; and the Spanish possessions and 
commerce on that ocean were ever after annoyed by the armed 
ships of nations at war with Spain, or by pirates and smugglers of 
various classes and denominations. 

The Gulf of California became the principal resort of the Dutch 
pirates, or, rather, privateers, who, under the name of PichiKngues,f 
Ivcpt the inhabitants of the adjacent coasts of Mexico in constant 
anxiety. For the purpose of dislodging these depredators, and also 
of obtaining advantages from the pearl fishery in the gulf, several 
attempts were made, by the government of Spain, and by individ- 
uals in Mexico, to establish colonies, garrisons, and fishing or' 
trading posts, on the eastern side of the peninsula of California. 
The details of the expeditions for these purposes, made by Vicuna 
and Ortega in 1631, by Barriga and Porter in 1644, by Pihadero 
in 1664 and 1667, by Lucenilla in 1668, and by Atondo in 1683, 
are devoid of interest. Many pearls were obtained, among which 
are some of the most valuable in the regalia of Spain ; but the 
establishments all failed from want of funds, from the extreme 
barrenness of the soil, and the determined hostility of the natives 
of the peninsula, and, above all, from the indolence and viciousness 
of the persons employed in the expeditions. In the last attempt 
of this kind, under the direction of Don Isidro de Atondo, a number 
of settlers, soldiers, and Jesuits, were carried out from Mexico, and 
distributed at points on the gulf where the establishments were to 
be formed ; but these stations were all abandoned before the end of 
a year, and it was thereupon resolved, in a council of the chief 

* See Proofs and Illustr.ations, under the letter I, No. 1. 

t So called from tlie Bay of Pichilingue, on the cast coast of the Californian 
peninsula, which was the principal rendezvous of these Dutch pirates. 



1683.] JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. 99 

authorities of Mexico, that the reduction of California by such 
means was impracticable. 

The Jesuits, who had accompanied Atondo to California, while 
concurring in this opinion with the council, nevertheless insisted 
that the desired political objects might be attained by a different 
course, namely, by the civilization and conversion to Christianity 
of the natives of that country ; and this task they offered them- 
selves to undertake, doubting not that their labors would be crowned 
with the same success which had attended them in Paraguay. 
Their proposition was, as might have been expected, coldly received 
by the authorities, who could gain nothing by its execution. The 
Jesuits, however, not being disheartened by this refusal, perambu- 
lated the whole country, preaching, and exhorting all to contribute 
to the accomplishment of an enterprise so pious and so politic. By 
such means, and by the cooperation of their brethren in Europe, 
they raised a small fund; and finally, in 1697, they procured royal 
warrants, authorizing them to enter upon the reduction of California 
for the Icing, and to do all that might tend to that object at their 
own expense. On receiving these warrants, Father Salvatierra, the 
chief missionary, immediately sailed, with a few laborers and sol- 
diers, to the land which was to be the scene of their operations. 
There he was soon after joined by Fathers Kuhn, (a German, 
called, by the Spaniards, Kino,) Piccolo, Ugarte, and others, all 
men of courage and education, and enthusiastically devoted to the 
cause in which they were engaged ; and, in November, 1697, the 
first establisliment, called hereto, was founded on the eastern side 
of the peninsula, about two hundred miles from the Pacific. 

The Jesuits, on entering California, had to encounter the same 
perils and obstacles which had rendered ineffectual all the other 
attempts to occupy that country. They were attacked by the 
natives, to whose ferocity several of the fathers fell victims ; the 
land was so barren, that it scarcely yielded the means of sustaining 
life to the most industrious agriculturist, for wiiich reason the set- 
tlements were all located near the sea, in order that the necessary 
food might be procured by fishing ; and the persons employed in 
their service, being drawn from the most miserable classes in 
Mexico, were always indolent and insubordinate, and generally 
preferred loitering on the shore, in search of pearls, to engaging in 
the regular labors required for the support of settlers in a new 
region. The operations of the Jesuits were also, for some time, 
confined within the narrowest limits, from want of funds. Their 

LOFG. 



100 JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. [1702, 

brethren and friends occasionally made remittances to them, in 
money or goods ; and the king was persuaded to assign, for their 
use, a small annual allowance : but the Mexican treasury, which 
was charged with the payment of this allowance, was seldom able 
to meet their drafts when presented ; and the assistance derived 
from all these sources was much diminished in value before it 
reached those for whom it was destined. Embarrassments of this 
nature occurred in 170:2, at the commencement of the undertaking, 
in consequence of the great costs of the expeditions from Mexico 
for the occupation of Texas, and the establishment of garrisons at 
Pensacola and other places in Florida, as checks upon the French. 
By perseverance and kindness, however, rather than by any 
other means, the Jesuits overcame all the difficulties to which they 
were exposed ; and within sixty years after their entrance into Cal- 
ifornia, they had formed sixteen principal estabhshments, called 
missions, extending in a chain along the eastern side of the penin- 
sula from Cape San Lucas to the head of the gulf. Each of these 
missions comprised a church, a fort garrisoned by a few soldiers, 
and some stores and dwelling-houses, all under the entire control of 
the resident Jesuit ; and it formed the centre of a district containing 
several rancherias, or villages of converted Indians, The principal 
mission or capital was Loreto ; south of it was La Paz, tlie port 
of communication with Mexico, probably the same place called 
Santa Cruz by Cortes, where he endeavored to plant a colony in 
1535 ; and near Cape San Lucas was San Jose, at which an attempt 
was made to provide means for the repair and refreshment of vessels 
employed in the Philippine trade. No establishments were formed 
on the west coast, which does not seem to have been visited by the 
Jesuits, except on one occasion, in 1716. The villages were each 
under the superintendence of Lidians selected for the purpose, of 
whom one possessed the powers of a governor, another took care 
of the church or chapel, and a third summoned the inhabitants to 
prayers and reported the delinquents. The children were . taught 
to speak, read, write, and sing, in Spanish, and were initiated into 
the doctrines and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion. The 
converts were directed in their labors by the fathers ; each being 
generally allowed to retain the fruits of his industry, though he 
was at the same time made to understand that he could not claim 
them as his property. Immigration from other countries, except of 
Jesuits, was as far as possible prevented ; the efforts of the mission- 
aries being, in California as in Paraguay, devoted exclusively to the 



1760.] JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. 101 

improvement of the natives, and their union into a species of com- 
monwealth, under the guidance of their preceptors. 

The Jesuits also in California, as in Paraguay and elsewhere, 
exerted themselves assiduously in acquiring a knowledge of the 
geography, natural history, and languages of the country. They 
surveyed the whole coast of the Californian Gulf, determining with 
exactness the relative positions of the principal points on it ; and in 
1709, Father Kuhn ascertained beyond doubt the fact of the con- 
nection of the peninsula with the continent, which had been denied 
for a century. Indeed, as regards the eastern and middle parts of 
the peninsula, nearly all the information which we possess at the 
present day has been derived through the labors of these mission- 
aries. On all those subjects, the results of their researches were 
communicated to the world througii the Lettres cdifiantcs et curi- 
euses, published, from time to time, at Paris, by learned members of 
their order, and afterwards more fully in their History of California,* 
which appeared at Madrid in 1757, and has been translated into all 
the languages of Western Europe. 

In the mean time, — that is to say, ever since the beginning of the 
seventeenth century, — the power of Spain had, from a variety of 
causes, been constantly declining. Her resources, and those of her 
colonies, had, within that period, been materially reduced ; in mari- 
time force she had fallen far below England and France, and a 
large portion of America, including valuable and extensive terri- 
tories, which had been long occupied by her subjects, had passed 
into the hands of her rivals or enemies. Her government, indeed, 
resisted, as long as possible, these intrusions and encroachments, as 
they were considered, of other nations upon territories of which 
Spain claimed exclusive possession in virtue of the papal grant of 
1493, as well as of prior discovery ; and never, until forced by 
absolute necessity, did the court of Madrid recognize the claim of 
any other power, except Portugal, to occupy countries in the New 
World, or to navigate the Western Atlantic, or any part of the 
Pacific. The earliest recognition of such a right by Spain was 

* JVoticia de California y de su Covqvista espiritual y tewporal. — This work, thonn-h 
usually attributed to Venegas, is doubtless chiefly due to the labors of Father Andres 
Marcos Burriel. The portions relating to the proceedings of the Jesuits in California 
are highly interesting, and bear every -nternal mark of truth and authenticity. The 
observations on the policy of the Spanish government towards its American posses- 
sions are replete with wisdom, and indicate more liberality, as well as boldness, on 
the part of the authors, than could have been reasonably expected, considering the 
circumstances under which they were written and published. 



102 DECLINE OF THE SPANISH POWER. [1763. 

made in the American treaty, as it was called, concluded with Great 
Britain in 1670, by which it was agreed that the British king should 
have and enjoy forever, with plenary right of sovereignty and 
property, all lands, regions, islands, and colonics, possessed by him 
or his subjects in the West Indies, or in any part of America ; with 
the understanding, however, that the subjects of neithjer power 
should trade with, or sail to, any place in those countries belonging 
to the other, unless forced thither by stress of weather or pursuit 
by enemies or pirates. These stipulations were renewed and con- 
firmed by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, in which the queen of 
England, moreover, engaged to give assistance to the Spaniards for 
the restoration of the ancient limits of their dominions in the West 
Indies, as they were in the time of King Charles 11. of Spain; 
and it was by common consent established, as a chief and funda- 
mental rule, that the exercise of navigation and commerce in the 
Spa7iish West Indies should remain as it was in the time of that 
king, who died in 1700. 

The terms of these, and all other treaties on the same subject, 
between Great Britain and Spain, were, however, so vague, tliat 
they served rather to increase than to prevent disputes. The 
meaning of the expression Spanish West Indies never could be 
fixed to the satisfaction of both the parties ; and it was impossible 
for them, in any case of alleged trespass by either upon the rights 
of the other, to agree as to what were the limits of their respective 
dominions, or what was the state of their navigation and commerce 
at the time of the death of King Charles II., or at any other time. 
The British colonies were, nevertheless, constantly advancing and 
absorbing those' of other European powers, and all the attempts of 
the Spaniards to check their prosperity were ineffectual. 

The French, by their occupation of Louisiana and the western 
half of St. Domingo, also gave great uneasiness to the Spaniards 
for some time ; but the political interests of the two nations had 
become so closely involved, by the family ties between their sove- 
reigns, that Spain, as the weaker, in this and in the other cases, 
was obliged to submit to the influence and encroachments of her 
powerful ally. 

At length, in 1763, peace was restored among these three great 
powers. Spain recovered from France New Orleans and the part 
of Louisiana west of the Mississippi ; while the remainder of 
Louisiana, together with Florida, Canada, and all the other French 
possessions on the North American continent; became the property 



176:2.] FAMILY COMPACT. 103 

of Great Britain. The interests of France in the New World were 
so small, after these arrangements, that they could scarcely of them- 
selves allbrd grounds for dispute between her and Spain ; and the 
two crowns were, moreover, supposed to be firmly united by a 
treaty celebrated in history as the Famihj Conijjnct, concluded in 
1762, through the agency, chiefly, of the duke de Choiseul, prime 
minister of France, by which the sovereigns of those kingdoms 
guarantied to each other all their dominions in every part of the 
world, and engaged to consider as their connnon enemy any nation 
which should become the enemy of either. 

The claims of Spain to the sovereignty of the western side of 
America were never made the subject of controversy with any. 
other state until 1790 ; but her pretensions to the exclusive navi- 
gation of the Pacific, thov;gh upheld by her government even after 
that period, had long before ceased to be regarded with respect by 
the rest of the v/orld. The free-traders, freebooters, and bucaniers, — 
that is to say, the smugglers and pirates, — of Great Britain, France, 
and Holland, led the way into that ocean, which they continued 
to infest during the wJiole of the seventeenth and a part of the 
eighteenth centuries : they were followed by the armed squadrons 
of those nations, with one or other of which Spain was almost 
always at war ; and during the intervals of peace came the exploring 
ships of the same powers, whose voyages, though at first ostensibly 
scientific, were, with good reason, considered at Madrid as ominous 
of evil to the dominion of Spain in America.* 

These exploring voyages became more frequent, and their objects 
were avowedly political as well as scientific, after the peace of 
1763 ; about which time, moreover, they were rendered more safe, 
expeditious, and etlective in every respect, by the introduction of 
the reflecting quadrant and the chronometer into use on board the 
public ships of all the maritime nations of Europe, except Spain 
and Portugal. Between that year and 1779 tlie Pacific and the 
southern oceans were annually swept by well-appointed ships of 
Great Britain or France, under able navigators, whose journals were 
published immediately on the conclusion of their voyages, in the 

* Lord Lansdowne, in a speech in the Britisli House of Lords, December 13, 1790, 
on the subject of the convention then recently conchided with Spain, said — "Sir 
Benjamin Keene, [ambassador from Great Britain at Madrid from 1754 to 1757,] one 
of the ablest foreign ministers this country ever had, used to say, that, if the Span- 
iards vexed us in the first instance, wo had means enouirh to vex them in return, 
without infringing treaties ; and the first step ho would recommend would be to 
send out thips of discovery to the South Sea." 



104 ALARMS OF THE COURT OF MADRID [1765. 

most authentic manner possible, illustrated by maps, plans, tables, 
views of scenery, and portraits of natives, all conspiring to aftbrd 
the most exact ideas of the objects and places described in the 
narratives. New lands and new objects and channels of com- 
mercial and political enterprise were thus opened to all ; and new 
principles of national right, adverse to the subsistence of .the 
exclusive system so long maintained by the Spanish government, 
were established and recognized among all other states. 

The voyages of the British exploring ships were, until 1778, con- 
fined to t!ie southern parts of the ocean ; but the Spanish govern- 
ment had been constantly in dread of their appearance in the North 
Pacific, particularly as a navigable communication between that 
ocean and the Atlantic, in the north, was again generally believed 
to exist. The acquisition of Canada by Great Britain rendered 
the discovery of such a passage much more important to that 
power, as there was less danger that any other nation should 
derive advantages from it, to the injury of British interests ; while 
Spain, becoming possessed of Louisiana, which was supposed to 
extend indefinitely northward, had thus additional reasons for 
viewing with dissatisfaction any attempts of her rival to. advance 
westward across the continent. 

Serious grounds of apprehension were also afforded by the pro- 
ceedings of the Russians on the nortliernmost coasts of the Pacific. 
All that was generally known of them was obtained from the maps 
and accounts of the French geographers, which, though vague and 
contradictory, yet served to establish the certainty that this am- 
bitious and enterprising nation had formed colonics and naval 
stations in the north-easternmost part of Asia, and had found and 
taken possession of extensive territories beyond the sea bathing 
those shores ; and these circumstances were sufficient to alarm the 
Spanish government for the safety of its provinces on the western 
side of America. 

In order to avert the evils thus supposed to be impending, and 
at the same time to revive the claims of Spain to the exclusive 
navigation of the Pacific, and to the possession of the vacant terri- 
tories of America adjoining her settled provinces, as well as to 
render those provinces more advantageous to and dependent on 
the mother country, a system was devised at Madrid, about the 
year 1765, embracing a series of measures which were to be apphed 
as circumstances might dictate or permit. This system, which is 
supposed to have been elaborated chiefly by Carrasco, the fiscal of 



1766.] SCHEMES OF THE COURT OF SPAIN. 105 

the Council of Castile, and Galvez, a high officer of the Council of 
the Indies, embraced reforms in every part of the administration, 
particularly in the finances of the American dominions, the shameful 
abuses in which had been laid open by Ulloa, in his celebrated 
report* presented to the government in 1747. It was likewise 
intended that the vacant coasts and islands, adjacent to the settled 
provinces in the New World, should be examined and occupied by 
colonies and garrisons sufficient for their protection against the 
attempts of foreign nations to seize them, or at least to secure 
to Spain the semblance of a right of sovereignty over them, on 
the ground of prior discovery and settlement. The deliberations 
with regard to this system seem to have been conducted with the 
utmost secrecy by the Spanish government ; and no idea was enter- 
tained of its objects in 1766, when Galvez, the officer above named, 
arrived in Mexico as visitad6}-,-\ with full powers to carry the new 
measures into effect in that part of the dominions. 

This Galvez was a man of the most violent and tyrannical dis- 
position. His arbitrary proceedings in financial matters occasioned 
an insurrection in the province of Puebla, which nothing but the 
firmness and good sense of the marquis de Croix, then viceroy of 
Mexico, prevented from becoming general. He then engaged in an 
expensive war against the Indians in Sonora and Sinaloa, the coun- 
tries bordering on the eastern side of the Californian Gulf, from 
which very little either of honor or of profit accrued to Spain ; and 
a portion of his impetuosity having thus escaped, he turned his 
attention towards California, where he was charged with an im- 
portant duty. 

The sovereigns of continental Europe and their ministers had 
long been impatient and jealous of the influence enjoyed, or sup- 

* Koticias secretas de America — Secret information respecting the internal adminis- 
tration of Peru, Quito, Chile, and New Granada, collected by Don Antonio de Ulloa 
and Don Jorge Juan, who had been sent for that purpose by the Spanish govern- 
ment in 1740 ; the only work from which it is possible to obtain a true picture of the 
state of those countries, and of the abuses and corruptions practised in them by the 
Spanish officials. It was first published at London, in ]i^2G, by some political refugees 
of that nation, who had obtained possession of the original manuscript. 

t " This title is given to persons charged by the court of Madrid to make inquiries 
as to the state of the colonies. Their visits, in general, produce no other effects than 
to balance for a time the authorities of the viceroy and the audiencia, [powers almost 
always at variance,] and to cause an infinite number of memorials, petitions, and 
plans, to be devised and presented, and some new tax to be imposed. The people of 
the country look for the arrival of a visitaddr with the same impatience with which 
they afterwards desire his departure. "—i^Humboldt's Essay on Mexico, book ii. 
chapter vii. 

14 



106 THE EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS. [1767 

posed to be enjoyed, by the Jesuits ; and the governments of Spain 
and Portugal, though always opposed to each other, were equally 
mistrustful as to the objects and proceedings of that order in the 
New World. Suspicions were entertained at Lisbon and at Madrid 
that those proceedings were not dictated solely by religious or phil- 
anthropic motives ; but that the Jesuits aspired to the separation 
and exclusive control of the greater part, if not of the whole, of 
Southern America: and these suspicions were increased by the 
successful stand which they made in Paraguay, at the head of the 
natives, against the division of that province, and the transfer of a 
portion of its territory to Portugal, agreeably to the treaty concluded 
between tiie latter kingdom and Spain, in 1750. This act drew 
down upon the order tlie hatred of the subtle and fearless marquis 
de Pombal, who then ruled Portugal with a rod of steel ; from that 
moment he devoted himself to its destruction, and, his plans having 
been disposed with care and secrecy, all its members were expelled 
from the Portuguese dominions, without difficulty, in 1759. In 
France, the Jesuits were soon after entirely overthrown by the 
agency of the duke de Choiseul, the minister, and madame de Pom- 
padour, the mistress of Louis XV. ; and on the 2d of April, 1767, 
a decree was unexpectedly issued by King Charles IIL of Spain, 
at the instigation of the celebrated count de Aranda, for their im- 
mediate banishment from the Spanish territories. This decree was 
executed without delay in every part of the empire. In Mexico, 
the Jesuits, to the number of several hundreds, were, in July 
following, arrested and sent off to Europe ; and a strong military 
force was at the same time despatched to California, under the 
command of Don Caspar de Portola, who found no difficulty in 
tearing a few old priests from the arms of their wailing converts. 

Thus ended the rule of the Jesuits in Cahfornia. That their 
efforts were attended with good cannot be denied ; for those who 
were the immediate objects of their care, were certainly rendered 
happier, more comfortable, and more free from vice, than they would 
otherwise have been. Unfortunately, however, the aborigines of 
California are among the most indolent and brutish of the human 
race ; with minds as sterile and unimprovable as the soil of their 
peninsula. By constant watchfulness, by the judicious administra- 
tion of rewards as well as punishments, by the removal of all evil 
examples, and, above all, by studiously practising themselves what 
they recommended to others, the_ benevolent, wise, and persevering 
Jesuits did indeed introduce a certain degree of civilization, or 



1767.] EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS. 107 

apparent civilization, among these people ; but there is no reason 
to believe that, by any means as yet employed for the purpose, a 
single Californian Indian has been rendered a useful, or even an 
innocuous, member of society. 

There was, however, no intention on the part of the Spanish 
government to abandon California. On the contrary, the peninsula 
immediately became a province of Mexico, and was provided with 
military and civil officers dependent on the viceroy of that kingdom; 
and the missions were confided to the Dominicans, under whose 
austere rule the majority of the converts relapsed into barbarism. 
Establishments were also formed by the Spaniards on the western 
side of California; and the coasts farther north, which had been 
neglected for more than a hundred and sixty years, were explored 
in voyages made for the purpose from Mexico, as will be shown in 
the succeeding chapter. 



108 



CHAPTER IV. 

1769 TO 1779. 

First Establishments on the West Coast of California founded by the Spaniards — 
Dispute between Spain and Great Britain respecting the Falkland Islands — 
Exploring Voyages of the Spaniards under Perez, Heceta and Bodega, and Arteaga 
and Bodega — Discovery of Nootka Sound, Norfolk Sound, and the Mouth of the 
Columbia River ^ Importance of these Discoveries. 

Immediately after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Mexico, the 
viceroy of Mexico, De Croix, and the visitador, Galvez, directed 
their attention to the estabhshment of colonies and garrisons on the 
western side of California, agreeably to the system adopted for the 
restauration of the Spanish dominions in the New World. 

At that time, little was known, with certainty, of any part of the 
west coast of America north of the 43d parallel, to which latitude 
it had been explored by Sebastian Vizcaino, in 1603. The voyage 
of Juan de Fuca was generally considered as apocryphal, and 
nothing of an exact nature could be learned from the accounts of 
the Russian expeditions in that quarter. Upon examining the 
charts and journals of Vizcaino, descriptions were found of several 
places surveyed by him, which he strongly recommended as suitable 
for settlements or naval stations ; and, agreeably to his views, it was 
determined in Mexico that the first establishments should be formed 
on the harbors which had received from that navigator the names 
of Port San Diego and Port Monterey. Accordingly, after much 
difficulty, a small number of settlers, with some soldiers and Fran- 
ciscan friars, were assembled at La Paz, on the western shore, of the 
Californian Gulf, which had been selected as the place of rendez- 
vous ; and thence, in the spring of 1769,* they began their march 

* This account of the establishment of the first Spanish colonies on the west coast 
of California is derived from — the narrative of Miguel Costanso, the engineer of the 
expedition, which was published at Mexico in 1771, and immediately suppressed by 
the government ; a copy, however, escaped to England, from which a translation was 
published at London, in 1790, by A. Dalrymple — and from the biography of Friar 
Junipero Serra, the principal of the Franciscans who accompanied the expedition, 
written by Friar Francisco Palou, and published at Mexico in 1787. 



1769.] SPANISH COLONIES IN NEW CALIFORNIA. 109 

through the peninsula towards San Diego, the nearest of the places 
selected for the first establishments, in two parties, commanded 
respectively by Gaspar de Portola, the governor of the newly-formed 
province, and Fernando de Rivera, a captain in the army. Each 
party carried a drove of cattle ; the materials and supplies for the 
colonies being sent in three vessels directly to San Diego. 

The first party of emigrants under Rivera, after a long and 
painful march, reached San Diego on the 14th of May, 1769, and 
found there two of the vessels, which, after disastrous voyages and 
the loss of many of their crews by scurvy, had arrived a few days 
previous. The other body, under Portola, marched by a still more 
difficult route, and did not join their companions on the Pacific 
shore until nearly two months later. A spot having been chosen 
for the settlement near the entrance of the Bay of San Diego, 
a portion of the men were employed in erecting the necessary 
buildings ; with the remainder Portola set off for Monterey, where 
he was anxious also to establish a colony immediately, leaving 
directions that the third vessel, which was expected from Mexico, 
should be ordered to proceed with her cargo to that place. This 
expedition, however, was not successful ; for the Spaniards, march- 
ing along the eastern side of the range of mountains which 
border the coast northward of San Diego, passed by Monterey, 
and found themselves, at the end of October, on the shore of a great 
bay, which they supposed to be the same called Port San Francisco 
m the accounts of the old navigators. When ■ they discovered the 
place of which they were in search, the cold weather had begun ; 
and, the vessel not appearing, with the supplies, as expected, they 
were obliged to retrace their steps to San Diego. Of this third 
vessel nothing was ever heard after her departure from the Gulf of 
California. 

In the mean time, the people left at San Diego had experienced 
great difficulties from the hostility of the natives, by whom they 
were several times attacke^l ; and, after the return of the governor's 
party, they were all in danger of perishing from want of food : so 
that they unanimously agreed to abandon the country and return 
to Mexico, unless they should be relieved, before St. Joseph's day, 
the 10th of March, 1770, by the return of one of the vessels, which 
had been sent for supplies. On that day, one of the vessels 
did arrive, and, the supplies being found sufficient, Portola again set 
off for Monterey, where a settlement was effected. During the 
same year, other parties of emigrants came from Mexico, and new 



110 DISPUTE ABOUT THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. [1770. 

establishments were formed on the coast between San Diego and 
Monterey ; and, as the means of subsistence soon became abundant 
by the multiplication of their cattle, independently of the fruits of 
their labor in agriculture, the Spanish colonies in Upper California 
were, before 1775, in a condition to resist the dangers to which they 
were likely to be exposed. 

Another measure, undertaken by the Spanish government about 
this time, in prosecution of its plans for securing the unsettled 
coasts and islands of America from occupation by foreign powers, 
brought Spain into collision, and nearly into war, with Great Britain. 

Soon after the peace of 1763, colonies were formed by the French 
and the British on the barren, storm-vexed group of the Falk- 
land Islands, in the South Atlantic Ocean, near the entrance of 
Magellan's Strait. The French colonists were soon withdrawn by 
their government, at the instance of the Spanish king, though not 
until after an angry discussion : the British ministers, on the other 
hand, treated with contempt the remonstrances addressed to them 
from Madrid, on the subject of their settlement. At length, in 
June, 1770, the British colonists were expelled from Port Egmont, 
the place which they occupied, by a squadron and troops sent for the 
purpose from Buenos Ayres by Don Francisco Bucareli, the gov- 
ernor of that province. This event created great excitement in 
England, and both nations prepared for war ; but the dispute was 
compromised through the mediation of France. A declaration was 
presented on the part of Spain, to the effect — that the Catholic king 
disavowed the act of the governor of Buenos Ayres, and promised 
to restore the settlers to Port Egmont ; but that these concessions 
were not to be considered as prejudicing his prior right of sovereign- 
ty over the islands : and the British minister gave in return an accept- 
ance of the disavowal and promise of restoration, without noticing 
the Spanish reservation of right.* Agreeably to this promise, the 
British colonists were replaced at Port Egmont in 1771 ; but they 
were withdrawn by order of their government in 1774, on the plea 
of the expensiveness and inutility of the establishment, but, as is 

* The documents relative to this dispute may be found at length m the London 
Annual Register, and in the Gentleman's Magazine, for 1770. See, also, — the 
Parliamentary History, vol. xvi. — the Anecdotes of the Life of Lord Chatham, 
chap, xxxix. — Thoughts on the Falkland Islands, by Dr. Samuel Johnson, &c. 
The author of this History may also be permitted to refer to — a Memoir, Historical 
and Political, on the Falkland Islands — written by himself, and published in the New 
York Merchant's Magazine for February, 1842, containing full accounts of all the 
circumstances connected with this famous dispute. 



1771,] SETTLEMENT OF THE DISPUTE. Ill 

generally believed, in consequence of a secret engagement to that 
effect, concluded between the parties* at the time of the settlement 

* The existence of such an engagement was first insinuated by Junius, in his letter 
of January 30th, 1771, and was soon after directly charged, in parliament, by eminent 
members, without reply from the ministers. Johnson made no attempt to deny it in 
his Thoughts, «&c., but, on the contrary, in an edition published after the evacuation 
bj' the British, he admits tliat the " island was, perhaps, kept only to quiet clamors, 
with an intention, not then wholly concealed, of quitting it in a short time." That 
the British ministers did engage to evacuate Port Egmont, soon after it should have 
been restored, is positively asserted in the Anecdotes of the Life of Lord Chatham, 
in the Histoire de la Diplomatic Francaise, by Flassan, and in the Histories of Eng- 
land, by Bisset, Belsham, Hughes, and Wade; while Coote and Adolphus both admit 
that an assurance to the same effect was made to Spain prior to the settlement of the 
dispute. The Pictorial History of England, published in 1641, states the belief as to 
the existence of the secret engagement, leaving the question as to its truth undeter- 
mined. In fine, it was regarded as an established fact, that, at the time of the conclu- 
sion of the dispute, an engagement or promise icas made by the British government to 
that of Spain, to withdraw all British subjects fro^n the Falkland Islands within a short 
time after Port Egmont should have been restored to Great Britain; and this fact re- 
mained unquestioned until the 8th of January, 1834, when Lord Palmerston, the 
British secretary for foreign affairs, in answer to a protest on the part of the gov- 
ernment of Buenos Ayres against the recent occupation of the Falkland Islands by 
Great Britain, formally denied it, and produced a number of extracts from corre- 
spondence beticccn British ministers and their oicn agents, which he considered as 
affording " conclusive evidence that no such secret understanding could have existed," 
as it is not mentioned in those extracts. The papers cited by Lord Palmerston, and 
the arguments which he draws from them, are, however, insufficient to change the 
general belief on the subject; for in none of them should we expect to find any allu- 
sion to the engagement in question. There is no apparent reason that the ministers 
should have informed any of the persons addressed in these letters of their promise 
to evacuate the islands ; while, on the other hand, it was clearly important for them 
to suppress all proof of their having made such an engagement, which the whole 
British people would have considered dishonoring. It is no novelty in diplomacy, 
that an ambassador should be kept in ignorance of matters settled or discussed be- 
tween his own ministers of state and those of the government to which he is accred- 
ited; and the very negotiation by which this dispute was terminated, was carried on 
through the agency of the secretar}^ of the French embassy at London, while the 
ambassador himself knew nothing about it. 

Equally inefficient to produce conviction is the assertion of Lord Palmerston in 
the same letter, " that the reservation (with regard to the sovereignty of the Falkland 
Islands) contained in the Spanish declaration cannot be admitted to possess an}' sub- 
stantial weight, inasmuch as no notice whatever is taken of it in the British counter- 
declaration." In the first place, no counter-declaration was made on the occasion: 
the British minister presented, in return for the Spanish ambassador's declaration, a 
paper containing not a vi'ord of contradiction, and which is, as it was stj'led when 
submitted to parliament, an acceptance. These two documents — the only ones which 
are as yet knoicn to have passed on the conclusion of the dispute — cannot be sepa- 
rated in reasoning on their contents, but must be taken together, as forming 07ie con- 
vention, admitted by both parties ; for it will not be pretended that the Spanish ambas- 
sador delivered his declaration, without full knowledge of the answer which was to 
be made to it. The silence of the British minister on the subject of the reservation 
amounts, at least, to an acknowledgment that the fact of the restitution of Port Egmont 
was not regarded as a surrender by Spain of her claim cf sovereignty over the Islands, 



112 SPANISH COLONIES IN NEW CALIFORNIA. [1'3^^4. 

of the dispute. Bucareli, the governor of Buenos Ayres, whose acts 
had been disavowed by his sovereign, was raised to the high and 
lucrative post of viceroy of Mexico. 

The issue of this dispute between Great Britain and Spain, served 
to impress upon the government of the latter power still more 
strongly, the conviction of the necessity of occupying the vacant 
coasts and islands of America adjoining its settled provinces. 
Efforts for this purpose were accordingly made, not only on the 
coasts of California, but also on those of Texas, of the Mosquito 
country, and of Patagonia, and were continued, at great expense, 
though with little effect, until 1779, when they were abandoned, in 
consequence of the wars excited by the revolution which ended in 
the independence of the United States. 

The efforts of the Spanish government were, however, specially 
directed towards the west coasts of North America ; and, in order 
to give them efficiency, a particular branch of the administration of 
Mexico was created, under the title of the Marine Department of 
San Bias, which was charged with the superintendence and ad- 
vancement of the establishments in that quarter. The port of San 
Bias, in Mexico, at the entrance of the Cahfornian Gulf, was made 
the centre of the operations for these purposes : arsenals, ship- 
yards, and warehouses, were erected there ; all expeditions for the 
coasts farther north were made from it, and all orders relative to 
them passed through the chief of the department, who resided at 
that port. 

In this manner, before 1779, eight establishments were formed, 
by the Spaniards, on the Pacific coast of America, between the 
Californian peninsula and Cape Mendocino ; the southernmost of 
which was San Diego, near the 32d degree of latitude, and the 
northernmost, San Francisco, on the great bay of the same name, 
near the 38th. These establishments were, in their character, 
almost exclusively military and missionary ; being intended solely 
for the occupation of the country, which it was proposed to effect, 
as far as possible, by the conversion of the aborigines to the 
Catholic religion^ and to the forms and customs of civilized life. 

The military arrangements were all on the most miserable scale. 
The forts, some of them dignified with the name of castles, were 
of mud ; the artillery were a few old pieces, of various sizes, 
generally ineffective, and the garrisons were all slender : the men 
were badly armed, badly clothed, and seldom or never exercised, 
though they were well fed, as the country was covered with cattle. 



1774.] SPANISH COLONIES IN NEW CALIFORNIA. 113 

the descendants of the herds brought thither by the Spaniards in 
1770 ; and the ground yielded, with httle cultivation, as much 
Indian corn, beans, and red pepper, as could be consumed. The 
missions were, for the most part, in the vicinity of the military 
stations, and, like those of the Jesuits, they each contained a church, 
generally well built, with some ruder edifices, for the accommoda- 
tion of the priests and their converts, and for store and work- 
houses. The public farms were worked by the' natives, under the 
direction of the missionaries or soldiers, and merely produced the 
food required in the establishments, and, in some places, a little 
wine. Towns were afterwards formed, some of which were 
endowed with the privileges of a corporation ; but none of them 
attained a large size. 

The missionaries were, as already stated, of the Franciscan 
order, the members of which are incapacitated, by their vows, from 
holding any property as individuals. They were, for the most part, 
plain, uneducated men — taken from the lower classes of society, and 
knowing no books but their breviaries, and the biographies of their 
saints — who devoted themselves conscientiously and heroically to 
the task of reclaiming and guiding the barbarous natives of that 
remote region — without any expectation of acquiring wealth or 
honors — unsupported by the ambition and pride of order which 
animated the Jesuits — and uncheered by those social pleasures and 
consolations which our Protestant apostles derive from their fam- 
ilies, wherever they may be placed. To their virtuous conduct and 
self-denial all the enlightened travellers* who have visited their 
missions bear unqualified testimony. 

These missionaries soon succeeded in reducing a large number 
of the natives of California to a certain degree of conformity with 
the customs of social life. The neophytes were obtained, gener- 
ally when young, from their parents, by persuasion, or by purchase, 
or, in some cases, by force, and were never suffered to return to 
their savage friends, if it could be prevented. They were all, at 
first, treated as children ; the nature and hours of their labors, their 
studies, their meals, and their recreations, being prescribed by their 
superintendents ; and they were punished when negligent or re- 
fractory, though not with severity. After remaining ten years in 
this state of pupilage, they might obtain their liberty, and have 
ground allotted to them ; but comparatively few availed themselves 

* La Perouse, Vancouver, Kotzebue, Beechey, &c. 
15 



114 VOYAGE OF JUAN PEREZ. [1774, 

of the permission, and those who did so, fcfr the most part, sunk into 
sloth and misery, or returned to the wilds, and resumed the savage 
life. In the latter cases, the Spaniards employed every means in 
their power to retake the fugitives, who were, indeed, often sent 
back by the barbarians, as unworthy of enjoying the privileges of 
freemen. 

The Franciscans did not, like the Jesuits, exert themselves in 
procuring information respecting the countries in which they 
resided ; and nothing has been learnt from them of the geogra- 
phy or natural history of the part of California which they occupied. 
In 1775, Friars Font and Garzes travelled, by land, from Mexico, 
through Sonora, and the country of the Colorado River, to the 
mission of San Gabriel, in California, making observations on their 
way, with the view to the increase of intercourse between Mexico 
and the establishments in the latter region. They were, however, 
coldly received by their brethren, who informed them that they had 
no desire to have such communications opened ; and their journal 
was never made public. In the same year. Friars Dominguez and 
Escalante, of the same order, attempted to penetrate westward 
from Santa Fe, in New Mexico, to the Pacific ; but, after proceed- 
ing about half the distance, they turned back. The journals of 
both these expeditions are still preserved, in manuscript, in Mexico, 
where they have been consulted by Humboldt and other travellers ; 
but they are, from all accounts, of no value. 

Between 1774 and 1779, three exploring voyages were made, 
by order of the Spanish government, in which the west coasts of 
America were examined, as far north as the 60th degree of latitude. 

The first of these voyages was conducted by Ensign Juan Perez, 
who had been long employed in the Manilla trade, and afterwards 
in the vessels sailing between San Bias and the new establishments 
on the Californian coast. He was accompanied by Estevan Marti- 
nez, as pilot, and Friars Pena and Crespi, as chaplains, from whose 
journals, as well as from those of the commander, the following 
account of the voyage is derived.* 

Perez sailed from San Bias in the corvette Santiago, on the 25th 

* The authorities for the account of this expedition are — the Narrative composed by 
Perez for the viceroy — the Journal of Friar Tomas de la Pena — and the Observations 
of the pilot Martinez — manuscript copies of which have been procured from Madrid. 
The Journal of Friar Crespi was examined by Humboldt, who has given some par- 
ticulars derived from it in his Essay on Mexico. Of this voyage no account was ever 
given to the world until 1802, when a short notice of it appeared in the Introduction 
to the Journal of the Sutil and Mexicana. 



1774.] VOYAGE OF JUAN PEREZ. 1 15 

of January, 1774, with orders, from the viceroy of Mexico, to 
proceed, as soon as possible, northward, to the 60th degree of 
latitude, and then to survey the coasts of America from that paral- 
lel, southward, to Monterey, taking possession, for the king, of 
every place at which he might land. From San Bias he went first 
to San Diego, and thence to Monterey, from which latter place he 
took his departure, on the 1 6th of June, for the north. The 
weather, as usual in that part of the Pacific, proved stormy, the 
winds blowing almost constantly from the north-west ; so that it was 
not until the 18th of July that the Santiago reached the 54th par- 
allel of latitude, under which land was first seen in the east. The 
coast thus observed was high and rocky, extending southward as far 
as the eye could penetrate, and terminating, in the north, in a point, 
to which Perez gave the name of Cope Santa Margarita. In the 
interior was seen a lofty, snow-covered range of mountains, which 
he called the Sierra de San Cristoval. On approaching the shore, 
the Spaniards could find no place where it would be safe to anchor ; 
and, on rounding the cape, the coast beyond it was found to stretch 
directly westward. By this time, the crew were beginning to show 
symptoms of scurvy, the weather was tempestuous, and the vessel 
was small, and badly provided in every resnect ; under which cir- 
cumstances, it was determined that no attempt should be made to 
go farther north. The Spaniards accordingly steered southward, 
along the coast, for about a hundred miles, and were then driven 
ofl" by a storm : before leaving it, however, they met some of the 
natives, in their canoes, with whom they traded, receiving sea-otter 
and other valuable skins in return for old clothes, knives, shells, 
and other trifles. 

The land thus discovered was the west side of the large island 
afterwards named Quee7i Charlotte's Island by the British ; Cape 
Santa Margarita being the north-easternmost point, now called, on 
English maps. Cape North, at the entrance of Dixon's Channel. 
Many particulars respecting the people of these coasts are recorded 
in the journals of the Spaniards, which agree precisely with the 
accounts of subsequent navigators. 

On the 9th of August, Perez again made the land, and discov- 
ered, under the parallel of 49 degrees 30 minutes, a deep bay, at 
the entrance of which he anchored, between two high points, one 
bearing six leagues north-west, the other two leagues south-east. 
Ere long, his vessel was surrounded by canoes, filled with natives of 
the country, who readily engaged in trade with his crew : they are 



116 VOYAGE OF JUAN PEREZ. [1774. 

represented, in the journal of Friar Peiia, as having Hghter complex- 
ions than other aborigines of America ; like those farther north, 
they were clad in skins, their hats being, however, made of rushes, 
curiously plaited and painted, of a conical shape, with a knob on the 
top. To the surprise of the Spaniards, they had many knives, 
arrow-points, and other articles, of iron and copper, though it did 
not appear that they had held any intercourse with civilized people. 
To this bay Perez gave the name of Port San Lorenzo, in honor 
of the saint on whose day it was first seen ; it is undoubtedly the 
same which, four years afterwards, received, from Captain Cook, 
the appellation of King George^s or Nooika Sound. The point 
north-west of its entrance, called, by the Spaniards, Cape Santa 
Clara, is the Woody Point of the English ; and the other point — 
the Cape San Estcvan of Perez — corresponds precisely, in situa- 
tion and all other particulars, as described, with the Point Breakers 
of the English navigator. 

From Port San Lorenzo, the Spaniards sailed along the coast 
southward ; and, in the latitude of 47 degrees 47 minutes, they 
beheld, at a distance in the interior, on the east, a lofty mountain, 
covered with snow, which they named Sierra de Santa Rosalia — 
probably the Mount Olympus of the English maps. Martinez, the 
pilot of the Santiago, many years after, thought proper to remem- 
ber that he had also observed, between the 48th and the 49th 
parallels, a wide opening in the land, and that he had given his own 
name to the point on the south side of its entrance. Of this 
observation no note appears in the journals of the voyage ; yet, 
upon the strength of the tardy recollection of the pilot, his country- 
men have claimed for him the merit of rediscovering the Strait of 
Juan de Fuca, and have affixed the name of Cape Martinez, in 
their charts, to the point of the continent where that passage joins 
the Pacific. Continuing his voyage to the south, Perez, on the 21st 
of August, passed in sight of Cape Mendocino, the true latitude of 
which he first determined ; and, on the 27th, he arrived at Mon- 
terey, whence he, after some time, went on to San Bias, 

In this voyage, the first made by the Spaniards along the north- 
west coasts of America after 1603, very little was learned, except 
that there was land, on the eastern side of the Pacific, as far north 
as the latitude of 54 degrees. The government of Spain, perhaps, 
acted wisely in concealing the accounts of the expedition, which 
reflected little honor on the courage or the science of its navigators ; 
but it has thereby deprived itself of the means of establishing 



1775.] VOYAGE OF HECETA AND BODEGA. 117 

beyond question the claim of Perez to the discovery of the important 
harbor called Nootka Sound, which is now, by general consent, 
assigned to Captain Cook. 

Immediately after the return of Perez to Mexico, the viceroy 
Bucareli (the same officer who, as governor of Buenos Ayres, had 
expelled the British from the Falkland Islands in 1770) ordered that 
another expedition should be made for the purpose of examining 
those coasts as far as the 65th degree of latitude, to which they 
were believed to extend continuously north-westward. With this 
object the Santiago was placed under the command of Captain 
Bruno. Heceta, under whom Perez was to go as ensign ; and she 
was to be accompanied by a small schooner, called the Sonora, of 
which Juan de Ayala was to have the command, and Antonio 
Maurelle to be pilot. These two vessels, having been equipped, 
and provided with the History of California by Venegas, and a chart 
of the whole north-west coast of America, constructed according to 
the fancy of the French geographer Bellin, in 1766,* sailed together 
from San Bias, on the 15th of March, 1775, in company with the 
schooner San Carlos, bound for Monterey, f Ere they had lost sight 
of the land, however, the captain of the San Carlos became delirious, 
in consequence of which Ayala was ordered to take his place, the 
command of the Sonora being transferred to Lieutenant Juan Fran- 
cisco de la Bodega y Quadra. These circumstances are mentioned, 
because, in nearly all the abstracts of the accounts of this voyage 
hitherto published, Ayala appears as the chief of the expedition ; 
whereas, in fact, he only accompanied the exploring vessels to a 
short distance from San Bias. 

* Carte reduite de TOcean septentrional, compris entre I'Asie ct rAmerique, 
suivant les Decouvertes faites par les Russes. Par N. Bellin. Paris, 17G6. 

t Of this expedition no less than five separate accounts are found among the 
manuscripts obtained from Madrid, viz. : tlie official narrative of the wliole, drawn 
up for the viceroy of Mexico — the Journal of Bodega — part of the Journal of 
Heceta, showing his course after his parting with Bodega — a concise narrative by 
Bodega — and, lastly, the Journal of Maurelle, the pilot of the Sonora. A copy of 
Maurelle's Journal was obtained in Madrid, soon after the conclusion of the voyage, 
from which an English translation was published at London, in 1781, by the Hon. 
Dainos Barrington, among his Miscellanies. This translation, though very inaccurate 
and incomplete, attracted much attention at the time of its appearance, and from it, 
and the short account given in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and 
Valdcs, all the information respecting the ^soyage has been hitherto obtained. Bar- 
rington's Miscellanies is, however, a rare book; and the notices of this expedition 
contained in the various memoirs, reports, correspondence, &c., relative to the north- 
west coast, are, for the most part, taken directly, or at second hand, from the abstracts 
of the Journal, given by Fleurieu in his instructions to La Perouse, and his Intro- 
duction to the Journal of Marchand, which are both filled with errors. 



118 VOYAGE OF HECETA AND BODEGA. [1775. 

The exploring vessels, after parting with the San Carlos, doubled 
Cape Mendocino, and, on the 10th of June, anchored in a small 
roadstead beyond that promontory, in the latitude of 41 degrees 
10 minutes. The officers, priests, and a portion of the men, imme- 
diately landed, and took possession of the country, in the name 
of their sovereign, with religious solemnities, bestowing upon the 
harbor the name of Port Trinidad; and they then engaged in 
repairing their vessels and obtaining a supply of water, which 
afforded them employment for nine days. 

During this period, the Spaniards held frequent communications 
with the people of the country, who dwelt principally on the banks 
of a small stream, named by the navigators Rio de las Tortolas, — 
Pigeon River, — from the multitude of those birds in its vicinity. 
The Indians conducted themselves uniformly in the most peace- 
able manner, and appeared to be, on the whole, an inoffensive and 
industrious race. They were clothed, for the most part, in skins, 
and armed with bows and arrows, in the use of which they were 
very expert ; their arrows were, in general, tipped with copper 
or iron, of which metals they had knives and other implements — 
whence procured the Spaniards could not learn. No signs of 
religious feelings, or ceremonies of any kind, could be discovered 
among them, unless their howling over the bodies of the dead may 
be considered in that light. 

Having completed their arrangements, Heceta and Bodega sailed 
from Port Trinidad on the 19th of June, leaving a cross erected 
near the shore, with an inscription, setting forth the fact of their 
having visited the place and taken possession of it for their sove- 
reign : this monument the Indians promised to respect ; and they 
kept their word, for Vancouver found it there untouched in 1793. 
The Spaniards considered the discovery of the place important : the 
harbor being, according to their journals, safe and spacious, and 
presenting facilities for communication between vessels and the 
shore ; and the surrounding country fruitful and agreeable. Van- 
couver, however, gives a much less favorable view of the harbor, 
which he pronounces to be in no respect a secure retreat for 
vessels, as it is entirely open to the south-west winds, which blow 
on that coast with the utmost violence at certain seasons of the 
year. The other accounts of the Spaniards, respecting the place 
and its inhabitants, are, in general, confirmed by those of the British 
navigator. 

The Spaniards, after leaving Port Trinidad, were obliged to keep 



1775.] VOYAGE OF HECETA AND BODEGA. 119 

at a distance from the coast for three weeks, at the end of which 
time they again came in sight of it, in the latitude of 48 degrees 
27 minutes. From that parallel they examined the shore towards 
the south, in search of the strait said to have been discovered by 
Juan de Fuca in 1592, the entrance of which was placed, in Bellin's 
chart, between the 47th and the 48th degrees of latitude ; and, having 
satisfied themselves that no such opening existed there, the two 
vessels cast anchor near the land, though at some distance from 
each other, in order to obtain water and to trade with the natives. 

Here a severe misfortune befell the schooner on the 14th of July. 
Seven of her men, who had been sent ashore in her qnly boat, 
though well armed, were attacked and murdered, immediately on 
landing, by the natives ; and the schooner was herself in much 
danger of being taken by those savages, who surrounded her, during 
the whole day, in great numbers, in their canoes, and were with 
difficulty prevented from boarding her. In conuuemoration of this 
melancholy event, the place at which it occurred was called Punta 
de Martires — Martyis Point ; it is in the latitude of 47 degrees 
20 minutes, and on English maps is called Grenville's Point. A 
small island, situated a few miles farther north, the only one de- 
serving that name between Cape Mendocino and the Strait of Fuca, 
was also named Isla de Dolores — Isle of Sorroivs : twelve years 
afterwards, this same isle received, from the captain of the ship 
Imperial Eagle, of Ostend, the appellation of Destruction Island, 
in consequence of a similar massacre of some of his crew by the 
Indians, on the main land opposite. 

This disaster, together with the wretched condition of the 
schooner, and the appearance of scurvy in the crews of both ves- 
sels, occasioned a debate among the officers, as to the propriety of 
continuing the voyage. The commander, Heceta, was desirous to 
return to Monterey, in which, however, he was opposed by his own 
pilot, Juan Perez, and by Bodega, the captain, and Maurelle, the 
pilot, of the schooner; and, their opinions having been given, as 
usual in the Spanish service, in writing, the unwilling assent of the 
commander was obtained, and the voyage towards the north was 
resumed on the 20th of July. Ere they had proceeded far in that 
direction, the vessels were separated in a storm ; whereupon Heceta 
seized the opportunity to go back to Monterey, whilst Bodega per- 
severed in his determination to accomplish, as far as possible, the 
objects of the expedition. 

Heceta, after parting with the schooner, made the land near the 

i 



120 HECETA DISCOVERS A GREAT RIVER. [1775. 

50th degree of latitude, (on the south-west side of the great island 
of Vancouver and Quadra,) and, passing by the Port San Lorenzo, 
(Nootka Sound,) discovered in the previous year by Perez, he came 
on the coast of the continent near the 48th parallel, without observ- 
ing the intermediate entrance of the Strait of Fuca, for which he, 
however, sought between the 47th and 48th parallels. Thence he 
ran along the shore towards the south^ and, on the 15th of August, 
arrived opposite an opening, in the latitude of 46 degrees 17 min- 
utes, from which rushed a current so strong as to prevent his enter- 
ing it. This circumstance convinced him that it was the mouth of 
some great river, or, perhaps, of the Strait of Fuca, which might 
have been erroneously placed on his chart: he, in consequence, 
remained in its vicinity another day, in the hope of ascertaining 
the true character of the place ; but, being still unable to enter the 
opening, he continued his voyage towards the south.* 

On the opening in the coast thus discovered Heceta bestowed 
the name of Ensenada de Asuncion-\ — Assumption Inlet ; calling the 
point on its north side Cape San Roque, and that on the south Cape 
Frondoso — Leafy Cape. In the charts published at Mexico, soon 
after the conclusion of the voyage, the entrance is, however, called 
Ensenada de Heceta — Heceta'' s Inlet — and i?io de San Roque — 
River of St. Roc. It was, undoubtedly, the mouth of the greatest 
river on the western side of America ; the same which was, in 1792, 
first entered by the ship Columbia, from Boston, under the command 
of Robert Gray, and has ever since been called the Columbia. 
The evidence of its first discovery by Heceta, on the 15th of August, 
1775, is unquestionable. 

From Assumption Inlet, Heceta continued his course, along the 
shore of the continent, towards the south, and arrived at Monterey, 
with nearly two thirds of his men sick, on the 30th of August. In 
his journal, he particularly describes many places on this part of the 
coast which are now well known ; such as — the remarkable promon- 
tory, in the latitude of 45J degrees, with small, rocky islets in front, 
named by him Cape Falcon, the Cape Lookout of our maps — the 
flat-topped mountain, overhanging the ocean, a little farther south, 
noted, in his journal, as La Mesa, or The Table, which, in 1805, 



* See extract from the Journal of Heceta, among the Proofs and Illustrations, 
under the letter E, in the latter part of this volume. 

t The 15th of August is the day of the Assumption, and the 16th is the day of St. 
Roque, or Roc, and St. Jacinto, or Hyacinth, according to the Roman Catholic 
calendar. 



1775.] VOYAGE OF BODEGA AND MAURELLE. 121 

received, from Lewis and Clarke, the name of Clarke's Point of 
View — and the numerous rocky points and reefs bordering the 
shore, between those places and Cape Mendocino. 

Meanwhile. Bodega and Maurelle, in their little vessel, were 
striving, if possible, to reach the 65th degree of latitude, agreeably 
to the instructions of the viceroy. With this object, after their 
separation from Heceta, they advanced towards the north, without 
seeing land, until they had passed the 56th degree of latitude, when 
they unexpectedly beheld it, on the 16th of August, at a great dis- 
tance in the north, and much nearer on the east ; though, by 
Bellin's chart, and their own calculations, they should have been 
one hundred and thirty-five leagues from any part of America. 
Steering towards the east, they discovered a lofty mountain, rising 
from the ocean in the form of a beautiful cone, and covered with 
snow, occupying the whole of what seemed to be a peninsula, 
projecting from the main land of an extensive and elevated ter- 
ritory : this mountain immediately received the name of San Jacinto, 
in honor of St. Hyacinth, on whose day it was discovered, the pro- 
jecting point of land which it occupied being called Cape Engano, 
or False Cape. In the angles between this supposed peninsula and 
the main land were two bays, or sounds, of which the northernmost 
was named Port Remedios, and the other Port Guadelupe, after 
the two celebrated shrines in the vicinity of the city of Mexico. 
There is no difficulty in identifying any of these places, as described 
in the journals of the Spanish voyage. They are situated on the 
west side of the largest island of the group distinguished, on 
English maps, as King George IH.'s Archipelago : Mount San 
Jacinto was, three years afterwards, named by Cook Mount 
Edgecumb ; Port Remedies is the Bay of Islands of the same 
navigator, and Port Guadelupe is the JSorfolk Sound of the 
English geographers. The two bays have since been found to com- 
municate with each other by a narrow passage, which completely 
separates the main land from the mountain. The Spaniards landed 
on the shore of Port Remedies, where they took possession of the 
country agreeably to the formalities prescribed, and obtained some 
water and salmon for the supply of their vessel. While thus en- 
gaged, they were surrounded by a crowd of natives of the country, 
who appeared to be more savage and determined than those of any 
other part of the coast, and also to entertain very distinct ideas 
of their own superior rights of property and domain. Thus the 
Spaniards were obliged to pay, not only for the fish, but also for 
16 



122 THE SPANIARDS ON THEIR RETURN. [1775. 

the water taken away by them ; and the cross, and other marks 
which they planted on the shore, were torn up immediately on their 
departure, and treated with every indignity by the savages. 

The voyage was resumed on the 20th of August, and was con- 
tinued along the coast, to the 58th degree of latitude, beyond which 
it was found impossible to proceed, as nearly all on board were, from 
fatigue and sickness, incapable of performing duty, whilst the winds 
were daily increasing in violence, and rendering greater exertions 
necessary. They accordingly, on the 22d, turned towards the south ; 
and, having passed Mount San Jacinto, they approached the coast, 
in order to seek for the Rio de Reyes, the great river through which 
Admiral Fonte was said to have penetrated far into the interior 
of the American continent, in 1640. " With this intent," writes 
Maurelle, in his journal, " we examined every bay and recess of the 
coast, and sailed around every head-land, lying to, during the night, 
in order that we might not miss this entrance ; after which exer- 
tions, we may safely pronounce that no such passage is to be 
found." This conclusion was certainly correct, but it was as 
certainly not established by the exertions of the Spaniards on this 
occasion : for, in the first place, they confined their search to the 
part of the coast north of the 54th parallel, whereas, in the 
account of Fonte's voyage, the Rio de Reyes is made to enter the 
Pacific under the 53d ; and, had their observations been as minute 
as Maurelle represents them, several passages would have been 
found, leading from the ocean towards the north and east, for the 
complete examination of any one of which, more time would have 
been required than was spent by the Spaniards in their whole 
search. Of the many openings in that part of the coast, the only 
one penetrated by these navigators was the extensive bay, named, 
by them, Port Bucareli, in the latitude of 55J degrees, on the 
west side of the largest island of the group called, on English 
maps, the Prince of Wales's Archipelago, where they landed, and 
took possession, on the 24th of August. Thence proceeding south- 
ward, they made the north-east extremity of Queen Charlotte's 
Island, which had received, from Perez, in the preceding year, the 
name of Cape Santa Margarita ; and they observed, immediately 
north of that point, the wide passage which they called Enirada de 
Perez — the Dixon's Entrance of the English maps, separating 
Queen Charlotte's from the Prince of Wales's Islands. 

From Cape Santa Margarita, the Spaniards sailed slowly towards 
the south, frequently seeing the land, though always at too great a 



1775.] RETURN OF BODEGA. 123 

distance to be able to make any useful observations, except as to the 
general direction of the shores, until the 19th of September, when 
they found themselves opposite the spot, near the 4Tth degree of 
latitude, where their men had been murdered by the natives two 
months before. Leaving that place, they next came on the coast 
in the latitude of 45 degrees 27 minutes, from which parallel they 
carefully examined the shores southward, to the 42d, in search of 
the great river, said to have been seen by Martin de Aguilar, in 
1603, as related in the account of Vizcaino's voyage. Their obser- 
vations induced them to conclude that no such river entered the 
Pacific from that part of the continent, though they perceived 
strong currents outsetting from the land in several places ; they, 
however, believed that they recognized the Cape Blanco of Aguilar, 
near which the mouth of his river was said to be situated, in a high, 
flat-topped promontory, with many white cliffs upon it, projecting 
far into the sea, under the parallel of 42 degrees and 50 minutes — 
the same, no doubt, afterwards named Cape Orford by Vancouver. 
Having completed this examination, they bore off to sea, and, 
rounding Cape Mendocino, they, on the 3d of October, discovered 
a bay a little north of the 3Sth degree of latitude, which they 
entered, supposing it to be Port San Francisco ; but it proved to be 
a smaller bay, not described in any previous account, and Bodega 
accordingly bestowed on it his own name, which it still bears. 
Having made a hasty survey of Port Bodega, the Spaniards sailed 
to Monterey, and thence to San Bias, where they arrived on the 
20th of November, after a voyage of more than eight months. 

In this expedition, the commander, Heceta, certainly acquired no 
laurels, though he effected, at least, one discovery, from which a nation 
more enterprising and powerful than Spain might have derived im- 
portant advantages. Bodega and Maurelle, however, nobly vindicated 
the character of their countrymen, by their constancy and persever- 
ance in advancing through unknown seas, at a stormy period of the 
year, in their small and miserably-equipped vessel, with a diminished 
crew, the greater part of whom were laboring under that most debil- 
itating and disheartening of diseases, the scurvy. Fortunately for 
their reputation, a copy of Maurelle's journal escaped from its 
prison-house in the archives of the Indies at Madrid, and was given 
to the world, in an English version, before the appearance of any 
other authentic account of the parts of the world which they had 
explored ; and, by this means, together with the publication of their 
chart about the same time, their claims as discoverers were estab- 



124 IMPORTANCE OF THESE DISCOVERIES. [1775. 

lished beyond all cavil. Thus, without reference to the voyage of 
Perez, it is conclusively proved that the Spaniards, in 1775, exam- 
ined with minuteness the whole western shore of the American 
continent, from Monterey, near the 37th degree of latitude, north- 
ward, to and beyond the 48th degree, and determined the general 
direction of the west coasts of the westernmost islands, bordering 
the continent between the 48th parallel and the 58th. Of these 
coasts, the portion south of the 43d degree of latitude had been 
seen by Ferrelo, in 1543, and possibly by Drake, in 1578; Juan de 
Fuca had probably sailed along them to the 53d parallel, in 1592; 
and the Russians, as will be hereafter shown, had discovered the part 
near the 56th parallel, in 1741 : but no definite information had been 
obtained, respecting any point, on the Pacific side of America, 
between Cape Mendocino and Mount San Jacinto, previous to the 
expedition of Perez. The geographical positions of the places 
visited by the Spanish navigators in 1774 and 1775, were, indeed, 
left very uncertain as regards their longitudes, though the latitudes 
have been found nearly correct ; yet the great question as to the 
extension of North America towards the west was approximately 
answered, and useful hints were afforded for the organization and 
conduct of future voyages. 

The results of this expedition were considered, by the Spanish 
government, as highly important ; a short notice of them was 
published in the official gazette, at Madrid, which was copied, with 
many additions, (nearly all of them erroneous,) into the London 
newspapers ; * and orders were sent to the viceroy of Mexico, to 

* " Several Spanish frigates having been sent from Acapulco to make discoveries, 
and to propagate the gospel among the Indians, to the north of California, in the 
month of July, 1774, they navigated as high up on the coast as the latitude of 58 
degrees 20 minutes, six degrees above Cape Blanco Having discovered several 
good harbors and navigable rivers upon the west coast of this great continent, they 
established, in one of the largest ports, a garrison, and called the port the Presidio 
(Ic San Carlos, and, besides, left a mission at every port where the inhabitants were 
to be found. The Indians they here met with are said to be a very docil? sort of 
people, agreeable in their countenance, honest in their traffic, and neat in their dress, 
but, at the same time, idolaters to the greatest degree, having never before had any 
intercourse with Europeans. M. Bucarelli, the viceroy of New Spain, has received 
his Catholic majesty's thanks for these discoveries, as they were made under his 
dii«ection ; and the several navy officers upon that voyage have been preferred. It is 
imngined that those new discoveries will be very advantageous, as the coast abounds 
with whales, as also a fish, equal to the Newfoundland cod, known, in Spain, by the 
name of Baccahio.'" 

The above notice appears in the London Annual Register for 1776, under date of 
June 28th, which was a few days before the departure of Captain Cook from England 
for the North Pacific. 



1779.] VOYAGE OF ARTEAGA AND BODEGA. 125 

have the discovery of the west coasts of America completed with- 
out delay, under the care of the same officers who had already 
effected so much for that object. With this view, the viceroy, 
Bucareli, ordered a large ship to be built at San Bias, and another 
was, at the same time, constructed at Guayaquil, in Quito. In 
these preparations, nearly three years were consumed, so that the 
vessels were not ready for the expedition until the beginning of 
1779 ; they then quitted San Bias, under the command of Captain 
Ignacio Arteaga, who sailed in the larger ship, the Princesa, the 
other, called the Favorita, being commanded by Bodega, with Mau- 
relle as second officer. Heceta had been transferred to new duties. 

Of this voyage a short notice will suffice, as all the places dis- 
covered in the course of it had been visited, and minutely examined, 
in the preceding year, 1778, by the English, under Captain James 
Cook.* 

On the 7th of February, 1779, Arteaga and Bodega sailed from 
San Bias directly for Port Bucareli, which they entered after a 
voyage of four months ; and there they remained nearly two months, 
engaged in surveying the bay, in refitting their vessels, and in 
trading with the natives, of whom very minute and interesting 
accounts are given in the journals of this voyage. From Port 
Bucareli they sailed northward, on the 1st of July, and in a few 
days saw the land stretching before tiiem from north-east to north- 
west : on approaching it, they beheld rising from the coast a great 
mountain, " higher than Orizaba," which was, no doubt. Mount St. 
Elias ; and they began their search, west of these places, for a pas- 
sage leading northwards into the Arctic Sea, as laid down in the 
charts of Bellin, which they carried with them. In the course of 
this search, they entered a great bay, containing many islands, on 
the western side of the largest of which, called by them IsJa de la 
Magdalena, they found a good harbor, where they cast anchor on 
the 25th, and took possession of the whole region for the king of 
Spain. From this harbor, named by the Spaniards Port Santiago, 
parties were sent out in boats to explore the coasts ; but the com- 

* The papers relative to this voyage, which have been obtained, in manuscript, 
from the hydrographical department at Madrid, are — the official account of the whole 
expedition — and the journals of Bodega and Maurelle — accompanied by several tables 
of the navigation, and vocabularies of Indian languages, and the chart of the coast 
about Prince William's Sound, which is utterly worthless. A translation of a part 
of Maurelle's journal may be found in the first volume of the narrative of the expedi- 
tion of La Perouse, accompanied by some severe, and not altogether just, reflections 
on the conduct of the Spanish navigators in general. 



126 SPAIN AT WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. [1779. 

mander, Arteaga, becoming anxious to return to Mexico, soon found 
that the men were beginning to suffer from scurvy, that the pro- 
visions were faihng, and that there was no probabihty of their dis- 
covering any passage, through which they might penetrate farther 
north ; and he, in consequence, resolved that both vessels should 
immediately proceed to Monterey. They accordingly sailed from 
Port Santiago on the 7th of August ; on the 15th of October 
they entered Port San Francisco, and on the 21st of November 
they arrived at San Bias, " where," says Fleurieu, with more justice 
than usually characterizes his remarks on Spanish voyages, " they 
might have passed the whole time which they spent in their expedi- 
tion, without our knowledge in geography having sustained any loss 
by their inaction." The voyage was, in fact, productive of no 
benefit whatsoever, and the Spanish government should have been 
mortified at its results ; instead of which, however, the officers 
engaged in it were all promoted, for their good conduct and 
exertions. 

Of the places visited by Arteaga and Bodega, after leaving Port 
Bucareli, the great bay, called by them Ensenada de Regla, is now 
generally known by the name of Prince William's Sound, and their 
Isla de la Magdalena is the Montague's Island of the English maps. 
It is needless to mention any other of the many appellations given 
by the Spaniards to capes, bays, islands, and mountains, in that 
part of America, as they have fallen into disuse. 

In 1779, Spain became involved in war with Great Britain, and 
her flag did not again appear on the coasts north of Cape Mendo- 
cino until 1788. Before relating the events which occurred in that 
interval, it will be proper to present an account of the discoveries 
effected in the North Pacific, since the commencement of the cen- 
tury, by the Russians occupying the north-eastern extremity of 
Asia. 



127 



CHAPTER V. 
1711 TO 1779. 

Discoveries of the Russians from Kamtchatka — Voyages of Bering and Tchirikof to 
the Arctic Sea and to the American Continent — Establishments of the Russian 
Fur Traders in the Aleutian Islands — Voyages of Synd, Krenitzin, and Levashef 
— First Voyage from Kamtchatka to China, made by Polish Exiles under Ben- 
yowsky — General Inaccuracy of the Ideas of the Russians respecting the Geogra- 
phy of the northernmost Coasts of the Pacific, before 1779. 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the coasts of Asia 
on the Pacific, north of the 40th parallel of latitude, were as little 
known as those of America on the opposite side of the ocean. 

In 1643, Martin Geritzin de Vries and Hendrick Schaep, two 
Dutch navigators, commanding the ships Kastrikom and Breskens, 
explored the seas near Japan, as far north as the 48th degree of 
latitude, and probably entered the great gulf, called the Sea of 
Ochotsk, between the main land of Asia on the west, and Kamt- 
chatka and the Kurile chain of islands on the cast. It is also 
related, that Thomas Peche, an English bucanier, sailed along the 
same coasts in 1673, while in search of the Strait of Anian, the 
entrance of which he was said to have found north of Japan, 
though he was unable to pass through it, on account of the violence 
of the winds from the north. 

From such imperfect accounts the maps of that part of tlie world 
were generally constructed, before 1750. In those maps, Jesso, the 
northernmost of the Japan Islands, appears as part of the Asiatic 
continent, and Kamtchatka and the Kurile Islands are represented 
as one extensive territory, under the name of the Compant/s Land, 
united to America on the east, and separated from Jesso on the 
west, by a narrow passage called the Strait of Vries, or the Strait 
of Anian. 

In 1711, the whole of Northern Asia had been completely sub- 
jugated by the Russians, to whom the rich furs* abounding in those 

* See the article on Furs and the Fur Trade, among the Proofs and Illustrations at 
the concluding part of this volume, under the letter B. 



128 PLANS OF PETER THE GREAT. [1728. 

regions proved as attractive as the gold and silver of America were 
to the Spaniards. In the course of their expeditions, the Russians 
had traced the northern shores of Asia, to a considerable distance 
eastward from Europe, and they had formed establishments on those 
of the peninsula of Kamtchatka. But they had not yet, by their 
discoveries, afforded the means of determining whether Asia and 
America were united on the north into one continent, or were sepa- 
rated by a direct communication between the Pacific and the ocean 
north of Asia, called the Arctic or Icy Sea ; nor, indeed, was it 
ascertained that the sea around Kamtchatka was a part of the 
Pacific, though it was generally believed to be so, from the traditions 
preserved by the natives of that peninsula, of large ships having 
been wrecked on their coasts.* 

By these conquests the Russians had been enabled to secure, in 
addition to the other advantages, a commercial intercourse with 
China, which was carried on, agreeably to a treaty concluded in 
1689, by caravans, passing between certain great marts in each 
empire. But the ambitious czar Peter, who then filled the Russian 
throne, was not content with such acquisitions ; he yvas anxious to 
know what territories lay beyond the sea bounding his dominions 
in the east, and whether he could not, by directing his forces in 
that way, invade the establishments of the French, the British, or 
the Spaniards, in America. With these views, he ordered that 
vessels should be built in Kamtchatka, and equipped for voyages of 
discovery, to be made according to instructions which he himself 
drew up ; while, at the same time, other vessels should proceed 
from Archangel, on the White Sea, eastward, to explore the ocean 
north of Europe and Asia, in search of a navigable communication, 
or north-east passage, through it from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

Various circumstances prevented the execution of any of these 
projects d'.uing the lifetime of Peter. His widow and successor, 
Catharine, ho.vever, resolved to carry them into fulfilment; and a 
small vessel was, at length, in 1728, completed and prepared at the 
moutli of the Pviver of Kamtchatka, on the north-east side of that 
peninsula, for a voyage of discovery, to be made agreeably to the 
instructions of the great czar. The command of the expedition 
was intrusted to Vitus Bering, a Dane, who had been selected for 

* The particulars related in the present chapter are derived, principally, from the 
History of" Kamtchatka, by Kraschcninikof — the Account of the Russian Voyages 
from Asia to America, by MuUer — and the Account of the Discoveries of the Russians 
in the North Pacific, by Coxe, the last edition of which, published in 1803, is the 
most complete work on the eubject. 



1728.] Bering's voyage to the arctic sea. 129 

the purpose by Peter, on account of his approved courage and 
nautical skill ; his lieutenants were Alexei Tchirikof, a Russian, and 
Martin Spangberg, a German, each of whom afterwards acquired 
reputation as a navigator. 

Bering was instructed, first — to examine the coasts north and 
east from Kamtchatka, in order to determine whether or not they 
were connected with, or contiguous to, America; and next — to 
reach, if possible, some port belonging to Europeans on the same 
sea. With these objects he sailed from Kamtchatka River, on the 
14th of July, 1728, and, taking a northward course along the Asiatic 
shore, he traced it to the latitude of 67 degrees 18 minutes: there 
he found the coast turning almost directly westward, and presenting 
nothing but rocks and snow, as far as it could be perceived, whilst 
no land was visible in the north or east. From these circumstances 
the navigator concluded that he had reached the north-eastern ex- 
tremity of Asia, that the waters in which lie was sailing were those 
of the Icy or Arctic Sea, bounding that continent on the north, and, 
consequently, that he had ascertained the fact of the separation of 
Asia from America. Being satisfied, therefore, that he had attained 
the objects of his voyage in that direction, and fearing that, if he 
should attempt to advance farther, he might be obliged to winter in 
those desolate regions, for which he was unprepared, he returned 
to Kamtchatka, where he arrived on the 2d of September. All his 
conclusions have been since verified ; he, however, little suspected 
that he had, as was the fact, twice passed within a few leagues of 
the American continent, through the only channel connecting the 
Pacific with the Arctic Sea. When the existence of this channel 
was satisfactorily determined, it received, by universal consent, the 
name of Bering^s Strait, which it still bears. 

In the ensuing year, Bering attempted to reach the American 
continent, by sailing directly eastward from Kamtchatka ; but, ere 
he had proceeded far in that course, he was assailed by violent 
adverse storms, which forced his vessel around the southern extrem- 
ity of the peninsula, into the Gulf of Ochotsk. He then went to 
St. Petersburg, from which he did not return to engage in another 
voyage of discovery until twelve years afterwards. 

While Bering thus remained at the Russian capital, the existence 
of a direct communication between the sea which bathes the shores 
of Kajiitchatka and the Pacific was proved, — first, in 1729, by the 
wreck of a Japanese vessel on the coast of the peninsula, — and, ten 
years afterwards, by the voyages of two Russian vessels, under 
17 



130 DISCOVERIES OF SPANGBERG AND KRUPISCHEF. [1740. 

Martin Spangberg and William Walton, from Ochotsk, through the 
passages between the Kurile Islands, to Japan. Within the same 
period, also, the connection of the Pacific with the Atlantic, by the 
Arctic Sea, north of Europe and Asia, had been ascertained by 
means of expeditions, partly on land and partly on sea, along the 
northernmost shores of the continents ; though all the attempts 
made then, and since, to pass, in one vessel, around those coasts, 
from Europe to the Pacific, have proved abortive. Moreover, a 
Russian commander, named Krupischef, had sailed, in 1732, from 
Kamtchatka, northward, as far as the extreme point of Asia, which 
had been reached by Bering in his first voyage ; and he had thence 
been driven, by storms, eastward, upon the coast of an extensive 
mountainous territory, which was supposed to be, and doubtless 
was, a part of America. Thus the great geographical fact of the 
entire separation of Asia and America was supposed to be deter- 
mined ; and all doubts as to the practicability of navigating between 
the Russian dominions, in the former continent, and those of Spain, 
in the latter, were dissipated. 

These discoveries encouraged the empress Anne, who had suc- 
ceeded to the throne of Russia in 1730, to persevere in endeavoring 
to extend her authority farther eastward ; and she accordingly 
commissioned Bering, in 1740, to make another expedition from 
Kamtchatka, in search of America. For this purpose, two vessels 
were built in the Bay of Avatscha, on the south-east side of Kamt- 
chatka, which had been selected for the establishment of a marine 
depot ; and scientific men were engaged, in France and Germany, 
to accompany Bering, in order that precise information might be 
obtained on all points connected with the seas and territories to be 
explored. 

Before the preparations were completed, the empress Anne died ; 
but her successor, Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, 
immediately declared her determination to prosecute the enterprise ; 
and, no delays being experienced, the vessels sailed together from 
the Bay of Avatscha, on the 4th of June, 1741. The larger vessel, 
called the St. Peter, was commanded by Bering ; the other, the St. 
Paul, by Tchirikof, who had accompanied the Dane in his previous 
voyages. On leaving the harbor, they took an eastern course, and 
continued together until the 21st of the month, when they were 
separated during a violent gale, after which they never met again. 

Of Bering's voyage, after his separation from Tchirikof, the only 
definite accounts are contained in the journal of Steller, the surgeon 



1741.] Bering's voyage to America. 131 

and naturalist of the ship, wliich was first pubhshed, in the original 
German, by Professor Pallas, in 1795. Before that year, all that 
was known on the subject was derived from a meagre and incorrect 
abstract of the same journal, in Muller's collections of Russian 
history. StcUer is by no means precise on points of navigation 
and geography, in consequence of which very few spots described 
by him can now be identified, although the general course of the 
voyage may be ascertained. 

From Steller's journal, we learn that Bering, after parting with 
Tchirikof, sailed south-eastward, as far as the 46th degree of lati- 
tude ; and, not reaching America, he then altered his course to the 
north-east, in which he continued until the ISth of July, when land 
was seen ahead, nearly under the 60th parallel of latitude. The 
point first descried by the Russians was a mountain of such extra- 
ordinary height, as to be visible at the distance of more than eighty 
miles : on advancing towards it, other peaks, and then ridges, 
appeared, stretching along the coast, and into the interior, to the 
utmost limits of the view ; and, on entering a narrow passage, 
between the main land and an island, where they anchored on the 
20th, they perceived a strong current of discolored water issuing 
from it, which convinced them that a large river emptied into the 
sea in its vicinity. From these indications of the.extensiveness of 
the territory, together with its geographical position, they concluded 
that they had, at length, reached the American continent ; and the 
officers thereupon entreated their commander to pursue the dis- 
covery towards the south-east, in which direction the coast trended. 
But Bering was then enfeebled in mind, as well as in body, by 
severe illness, and was anxious to return to Kamtchatka ; in conse- 
quence of which, he resisted their entreaties, and, after a supply of 
water had been obtained from the island, they set sail for the west. 
None of the crew were allowed to go on the main land, lest they 
should be cut oft' by savages. On the island were found several 
huts, which seemed to have been recently abandoned, and various 
implements of fishing, hunting, and cooking, similar to those used 
by the Kamtchatkans ; of the natives, however, not one was seen. 

According to Steller, the name of Cope St. Elias was, much to 
his discontent, bestowed on this island, or some other in its vicinity, 
because it was reached on the day of St. Elias, agreeably to the 
Russian calendar. The old accounts of the expedition, however, 
state that Bering honored with the name of that saint the lofty 
mountain which had first attracted his attention ; and, under this 



132 BERING ON THE AMERICAN COAST. [1741. 

impression, Cook, when he explored the north-west coast of Amer- 
ica, in 1778, appUed the name of Mount St. Elias to a stupendous 
peak which he observed, rising from the shore, under the 60th 
parallel, believing it to be, as it most probably was, the same dis- 
covered by the Russians in 1741. Vancouver, who examined this 
coast minutely in 1794, was convinced that the place where the 
Russians first anchored is on the eastern side of a bay at the foot 
of Mount St. Elias, on the east, which is called Admiralty or 
Bering's Bay, on English maps, and Yakutat on those of the 
Russians. The current of discolored water, setting out from that 
part of the coast, was observed, in 1838 by Belcher. 

After their departure from the island, the Russians continued 
sailing westward, occasionally seeing the land in the north, until the 
3d of August, when, in the latitude of 56 degrees, they beheld a 
chain of high mountains, (those of the great peninsula of Aliaska, 
and the contiguous island of Kodiak,) stretching before them from 
north to south. Upon discovering this impediment to their prog- 
ress, they turned to the south-west, in order to reach the 53d 
parallel, under which they were sure, from their observations in 
coming out, that they should find an open sea to Kamtchatka : but 
their course was so much retarded by violent opposing winds, that 
they had scarcely advanced sixty miles before the end of the month ; 
and, being then exhausted by fatigue and sickness, they anchored 
among a group of small islands, on one of which they remained 
ashore several days. There they first saw natives of America, who 
resembled the aborigines of Northern Asia in their features and 
habits, and were provided with knives, and other articles of iron 
and copper; although they appeared never before to have held 
any intercourse with civilized people. There, also, occurred the 
first death among the Russians, in commemoration of which, the 
name of the deceased sailor, Schwnagin, was bestowed on the 
group. The islands now so called are about ten in number, situated 
near the latitude of 55^ degrees, on the eastern side, and not far 
from the extremity of Aliaska. 

On quitting the Schumagin Islands, the Russians continued their 
course south-westward, and passed by other islands, which were 
those of the Aleutian Archipelago, extending westward from Aliaska, 
nearly under the 53d parallel. They were then assailed by furious 
storms, and were, for nearly two months, driven over the seas at 
random, while famine, disease, and despair, were daily lessening 
their numbers. " Tjie general distress and mortality," says Steller, 



1741.] DEATH OF BERING. 133 

" increased so fast, that not only the sick died, but those who pre- 
tended to be healthy, when relieved from their posts, fainted and 
fell down dead ; of which the scantiness of the water, the want of 
biscuits and brandy, cold, wet, nakedness, vermin, and terror, were 
not the least causes." At length, on the 5th of November, they 
again saw land, which proved to be an island, in the latitude of 55 
degrees ; and on it they resolved, at all hazards, to pass the winter. 
With this view, they anchored in the most secure place which could 
be found, close to the shore, and, having landed their stores and 
other necessaries, they began the construction of huts out of sails 
and spars ; but they soon had an abundant supply of materials from 
the wreck of their vessel, whicli was dashed in pieces on the island 
by the waves. 

On the 8th of December Bering expired, worn down by sickness, 
fatigue, and disappointment, and thirty of the crew were consigned 
to their graves on the island before the ensuing summer. The sur- 
vivors recovered their health, and obtained a sufficiency of food, by 
hunting the sea and land animals, which were found in great num- 
bers on and about the shores. As soon as the mild season returned, 
they collected the pieces of the wreck, of which they made a small 
vessel ; and, having provisioned it as well as they could, they set 
sail from the western side of the island on the 14th of August, 1742. 
Two days after, they made the coast of Kamtchatka; and, continuing 
along it towards the south, they, on the evening of the 27th, landed, 
forty-six in number, at the place in the Bay of Avatscha from which 
they had taken their departure fifteen months before. The island, 
on which they had thus passed more than nine months, is situated 
about eighty miles from the eastern shore of Kamtchatka, between 
the latitudes of 54i and 55J degrees, and has, ever since its dis- 
covery, been called Bering's Isle; it consists entirely of granite 
mountains. 

Such were the occurrences, and the unfortunate termination, of 
Bering's voyage. 

Tchirikof, likewise, pursuing an eastward course, discovered land 
in the latitude of 56 degrees. It was a mountainous territory, with 
steep, rocky shores, extending on the ocean from north to south ; 
and, the weather being unfavorable for approaching it, ten men were 
sent in a boat to make examinations. As these did not return, after 
some time, nor make any signal from the shore, six others were 
despatched in search of them, whose reappearance was also ex- 
pected in vain ; and Tchirikof was obliged, at length, to quit the 



134 VOYAGE OF TCHIRIKOF. [1741. 

coast without learning what had befallen any of them. In the 
mean time, the scurvy had broken out among his crew ; and as the 
stormy season was approaching, he resolved to hasten back to Kamt- 
chatka. His voyage thither was attended with great difficulties, 
and before the 8th of October, when he reached Avatscha, he had 
lost twenty-one men by sickness, including the distinguished French 
naturalist Delile de Croyere, in addition to the sixteen whose fate 
was undetermined. The land discovered by him must have been, 
agreeably to the account given of its latitude and bearings, the 
western side of one ef the islands, named, on English maps, the 
Prince of Wales's Archipelago^ the inhabitants of which are remark- 
able for their fierceness and hatred to strangers. It is, therefore, 
most probable that the men sent ashore by Tchirikof were murdered 
as soon as they landed. 

These discoveries of the Russians excited some attention in 
Europe, where they were made known, first, by the periodical pub- 
lications of France, England, and Germany, and afterwards more 
fully, by the scientific men and historians of those countries. In 
1750, a long memoir on the subject was read by the French geog- 
rapher Delisle, before the Academy of Sciences of Paris,* wherein 
he gives the highest praise to the Russian navigators, and pro- 
nounces, as proved by their expeditions, " that the eastern portion 
of Asia extends under the polar circle, towards the western part of 
America, from which it is separated by a strait about thirty leagues 
wide ; this strait is often frozen over, but, when free from ice, it 
affords communication for vessels into the Frozen Ocean." 

The Russian government did not, however, consider the dis- 
coveries of its subjects as sufficiently important to justify the imme- 
diate despatch of other vessels in the same direction ; and no 
further attempts to explore the North Pacific were made by its 
authority until 1766. In the mean time, accidental circumstances, 
connected with Bering's last voyage, had drawn the attention of 
individuals in Eastern Asia to the islands seen by that navigator, 
on his return towards Kamtchatka ; and the part of the ocean in 
which those islands lie had been thoroughly searched. 

It has been mentioned, that the crew of Bering's vessel, during' 
the period passed by them in the island, near Kamtchatka, had sub- 
sisted chiefly on the flesh of the sea and land animals found there. 
The skins of these animals, particularly of the black foxes and sea 
otters, were preserved by the men, and carried with them to Kamt- 

* Histoire de TAcademie Royale des Sciences, for 1750, p. 142. 



1760.] VOYAGES OF RUSSIAN FUK TRADERS. 135 

chatka, where they were sold at such high prices, that several of 
the seamen, as well as other persons, were induced immediately to 
go to the island and procure further supplies. In the course of the 
voyages made for this purpose, other islands, farther east, which had 
been seen by Bering and Tchirikof, were explored, and found to 
offer the same advantages ; and the number of persons employed in 
seeking furs was constantly increasing. 

The trade thus commenced was, for some time, carried on by 
individual adventurers, each of whom was alternately a seaman, a 
hunter, and a merchant; at length, however, some capitalists in 
Siberia employed their funds in the pursuit^ and expeditions to the 
islands were, in consequence, made on a more extensive scale, and 
with greater regularity and efficiency.* Trading stations were estab- 
lished at particular points, where the furs were collected by persons 
left for that object ; and vessels were sent, at stated periods, from 
the ports of Asiatic Russia, to carry the articles required for the use 
of the agents and liunters, or for barter with the natives, and to 
bring away the skins collected. 

The vessels employed in this commerce were, in all respects, 
wretched and insecure, the planks being merely attached together, 
without iron, by leathern thongs ; and, as no instruments were used 
by the traders for determining latitudes or longitudes at sea, their 
ideas of the relative positions of the places which they visited were 
vague and incorrect. Their navigation was, indeed, performed in 
the most simple and unscientific manner possible. A vessel sailing 
from the Bay of Avatscha, or from Cape Lopatka, the southern ex- 
tremity of Kamtchatka, could not have gone far eastward, without 
falling in with one of the Aleutian Islands, which would serve as a 
mark for her course to another ; and thus she might go on, from 
point to point, throughout the whole chain. In like manner she 
would return to Asia, and, if her course and rate of sailing were 
observed with tolerable care, there could seldom be any uncertainty 
as to whether she were north or south of the line of the islands. 
Many vessels were, nevertheless, annually lost, in consequence of 

* The islands discovered and frequented by the Russian fur traders were those 
called the Alcyutsky, or Jllcutian, extending in a line nearly along the 5;]d parallel 
of latitude, from the south-west extremity of the peninsula Aliaska, across the sea, 
to the vicinity of Kamtchatka. Aliaska was, likewise, supposed to be an island, 
until 1778, when its connection with the American continent was ascertained by 
Cook. The inhabitants of these islands were a bold race, who, for some time, 
resisted the Russians, but were finally subdued, after their numbers had been con- 
siderably reduced. 



136 VOYAGES OF RUSSIAN FUR TRADERS. [1760. 

this want of knowledge of the coasts, and want of means to ascer- 
tain positions at sea ; and a large number of those engaged in the 
trade, moreover, fell victims to cold, starvation, and scurvy, and to the 
enmity of the bold natives of the islands. Even as lately as 1806,* 
it was calculated that one third of these vessels were lost in each 
year. The history of the Russian trade and establishments on the 
North Pacific, is a series of details of dreadful disasters and suffer- 
ings ; and, whatever opinions may be entertained as to the humanity 
of the adventurers, or the morality of their proceedings, the courage 
and perseverance displayed by them, in struggling against such 
appalling difficulties, must command universal admiration. 

The furs collected, by these means, at Avatscha and Ochotsk, the 
principal fur-trading ports, were carried to Irkutsk, the capital of 
Eastern Siberia, whence some of them were taken to Europe ; the 
greater portion were, however, sent to Kiakta, a small town just 
within the Russian frontier, close to the Chinese town of Maimatchin, 
through which places all the commerce between these two empires 
passed, agreeably to a treaty concluded at Kiakta, in 1728. In 
return for the furs, which brought higher prices in China than any 
where else, teas, tobacco, rice, porcelain, and silk and cotton goods, 
were brought to Irkutsk, whence all the most valuable of those 
articles were sent to Europe. These transportations were effected 
by land, except in some places, where the rivers were used as the 
channel of conveyance ; no commercial exportation having been 
made from Eastern Russia, by sea, before 1779: and, when the 
immense distances,! between some of the points above mentioned, 
are considered, it becomes evident that none but objects of great 
value, in comparison with their bulk, at the place of their con- 
sumption, could have been thus transported, with profit to those 
engaged in the trade, and that a large portion of the price paid by 
the consumer must have been absorbed by the expense of trans- 
portation. A skin was, in fact, generally worth, at Kiakta, three 
times as much as it cost at Ochotsk. 

The Russian government appears to have remained almost en- 
tirely unacquainted with the voyages and discoveries of its subjects, 



* Krusenstern's journal of his voyage to the North Pacific. 

t In tho following table, each number expresses nearly the distance, in geographical 
miles, between the places named on either side of it : — 

St. Petersburg, 460, Moscow, 1500, Tobolsk, 1300, Irkutsk, 1550, Yakutsk, 600, 
Ochotsk, 1300, Petropawlowsk, on the Bay of Avatscha; Irkutsk, 300, Kiakta, 
1000, Pekin. 



1768.] VOYAGE OF KRENITZIN AND LEVASCHEF. 137 

engaged in the fur trade of the North Pacific, until 1764, when the 
empress Catharine II. ordered that proper measures should be 
taken to procure exact information witli regard to the islands, and 
the American coasts, opposite her dominions in Asia. This am- 
bitious sovereign had then just ascended the throne, and was, or 
chose to appear, determined to carry out the views of Peter the 
Great for the extension of the Russian empire eastward beyond the 
Pacific. 

Agreeably to the orders of Catharine, Lieutenant Synd sailed, in 
1766, from Ochotsk, and advanced northward, along the coast of 
Kamtchatka, as far as the 66th degree of latitude ; and, in the fol- 
lowing year, he made another voyage in the same direction, in 
which he is supposed to have landed on the American continent. 
Very few particulars respecting his expeditions are, however, known, 
as the Russian government appears to have suppressed all accounts 
of them, for reasons which have been suggested, but which it is 
unnecessary here to repeat. 

In 1768, another expedition was commenced, for the purpose of 
surveying the islands. With this object, Captains Krenitzin and 
Levaschef quitted the mouth of Kamtchatka River, in July, each 
commanding a small vessel ; and, after cursorily examining Bering's 
Isle, and others near the coast of the peninsula, they stretched 
across to the Fox Islands, the largest and easternmost of the Archi- 
pelago, among which they passed the winter. Before the ensuing 
summer, nearly half the crews of both vessels had perished from 
scurvy ; and, when the navigators returned to Kamtchatka, in 
October, 1769, they had done nothing more than to ascertain, ap- 
proximately, the geographical positions of a few points in the Aleu- 
tian chain. It appears, indeed, that Krenitzin had employed him- 
self exclusively in collecting furs, with which his vessel was laden 
on her arrival from her voyage. The only valuable information ob- 
tained by the Russian government, through this costly expedition, 
related to the mode of conducting the fur trade between Kamt- 
chatka and the islands ; upon which subject the reports of Levaschef 
were curious and instructive, and served to direct the government 
in its first administrative dispositions, with regard to the newly- 
discovered territories. 

The expedition of Krenitzin and Levaschef was the last made by 

the Russians in the North Pacific, for purposes of discovery or 

investigation, before 1783. In 1771, however, took place the first 

voyage from the eastern coast of the empire, to a port frequented 

18 



138 VOYAGE OF BENYOWSKY. [1771. 

by the ships of European nations ; and, strange to say, this voyage 
was conducted under the Polish flag ! In the month of May of 
that year, a few persons, chiefly Poles, who had been exiled to 
Kamtchatka for political reasons, succeeded in overpowering the 
garrison of the small town of Bolscheretsk, on the south-west side 
of Kamtchatka, where they were detained, and escaped to sea in 
a vessel then lying in the harbor. They were directed in their 
enterprise by Count Maurice de Benyowsky, a Hungarian, who had 
been an officer in the Polish service, and from whose history of his 
own hfe, afterwards published, all the accounts of their adventures 
are derived. From these accounts, it appears that the fugitives, on 
entering the Pacific, were driven northward as far as the 66th 
degree of latitude ; during which part of their voyage, they fre- 
quently saw the coasts of both continents, and visited several of 
the Aleutian Islands. At Bering's Isle they found a number of 
fugitive exiles, like themselves, established in possession, under the 
command of a Saxon ; and at Unalashka, the largest of the group, 
they discovered crosses, with inscriptions, erected by Krenitzin, in 
1768. I roceeding thence towards the south, they touched at 
several places in the Kurile, Japan, and Loochoo Islands, as also 
at Formosa; and, at length, in September, they arrived at Canton, 
where they carried the first furs which ever entered that city by sea.* 
A circumstantial account of the principal voyages and discoveries 
of the Russians, made between 1741 and 1770, drawn from original 
sources, was published at St. Petersburg, in 1774, by J. L. Stcehlin, 
councillor of state to the empress.f These records are curious and 
interesting, but they throw very little light on the great geographical 
questions relative to that part of the world, which then remained 
unsolved ; and the accompanying chart only serves, at present, to 
show more conspicuously the value of the discoveries effected by 
other nations. According to this chart, the American coast ex- 
tended, on the Pacific, in a line nearly due north-west from Cali- 

* Memoirs and Travels of Maurice Augustus Count de Benyowsky, written by 
himself, published at London, in 1790. Benyowsky's account of his escape from 
Kamtchatka, and his voyage to China, were for some time discredited ; but they have 
since been confirmed, at least as regards the principal circumstances. He afterwards 
had a variet3^of adventures, especially in Madagascar, of which he pretended to be 
the rightful sovereign ; and he was, at length, killed at Foul Point, in that island, in 
May, 1786, while at the head of a party of Europeans and natives, in a contest with 
the French from the Isle of France. 

t Description of the newly-discovered Islands in the Sea between Asia and 
America. A translation of the greater part of this work may be found in the last 
edition of Coxe's History of Russian Discoveries. 



1776.] ERRORS IN THE EARLY RUSSIAN MAPS. 139 

fornia, to the 70th degree of latitude, and was separated from the 
opposite coast of Asia by a wide expanse of sea, containing many 
islands, several of which correspond in' name with those of the 
Aleutian Archipelago, though the positions assigned to them are 
far from correct : the largest of the islands there represented, 
called Alascha, lies under the 67th parallel, between the western- 
most point of America and the most eastern of Asia. In the beau- 
tiful map of the Russian empire, published at St. Petersburg by 
Treschot and Schmidt, in 1776, no land, except some islands, ap- 
pears within twenty-five degrees of longitude east of Kamtchatka. 
Other maps, however, which appeared at a much earlier period, 
offer a view more nearly correct of the extreme north-western coasts 
of America, although the geographer who constructed them must 
have been guided almost entirely by suppositions. 

The errors of latitude, in all these maps, were very great, amount- 
ing to ten degrees, in some instances ; and those of longitude were, 
as may be readily supposed, much more considerable. Indeed, 
before 1778, when Cook made his voyage through the North 
Pacific, the differences in longitude, between places in that part 
of the ocean, had never been estimated otherwise than by the dead 
reckoning, which, however carefully observed, cannot afford accurate 
results ; nor had any relation, which could be considered as nearly 
correct, been established between the meridian of any point on the 
Atlantic and that of any point on the North Pacific. 



140 



CHAPTER VI. 
1763 TO 1780. 

Great Britain obtains Possession of Canada — Journey of Carver to the Upper Mis- 
sissippi — First Mention of the Oregon River — Inaccuracy of Carver's Statements 
— Journeys of Hearne through the Regions west of Hudson's Bay — Voyage of 
Captain Cook to the North Pacific — His important Discoveries in that Quarter, 
and Death — Return of his Ships to Europe ; Occurrences at Canton during their 
Stay in that Port. 

Whilst the Russians were thus prosecuting the fur trade on 
the north-westernmost coasts of America, the British were engaged 
in the same pursuit on the north-eastern side of the continent. 

It has been already mentioned that King Charles II. of England, 
in 1669, granted to an association of gentlemen and merchants of 
London the possession of all the territories surrounding Hudson's 
Bay, and the exclusive trade in those regions, with the object, ex- 
pressed in the charter, of encouraging his subjects to prosecute the 
search for a north-west passage for ships from that sea to the Pacific 
Ocean. Under the protection of this charter, the Hudson's Bay 
Company erected forts and trading establishments on the shores of 
the bay, and carried on an extensive and profitable trade with the 
natives of that part of America, to the annoyance of the French, 
who, also, claimed the country as part of Canada, and more than 
once dislodged the British traders. It was, indeed, provided by 
the treaty of Utrecht, in 1714, that the Hudson's Bay territories 
should belong to the former nation, and that commissaries should 
be appointed, on both sides, to settle the line separating those terri- 
tories from Canada : but no such boundary was ever fixed, by 
commissaries or otherwise, as will be shown hereafter ; * and the 
limits of the Hudson's Bay territories remained undetermined in 
1763, when Canada, with all the other dominions of France in 
North America, east of the Mississippi, were ceded to Great Britain 
by the treaty of Paris, 

* See chap, xiii., and Proofs and Illustrations, letter F. 



1766.] CANADA CEDED TO GREAT BRITAIN. 141 

How far the Hudson's Bay Company, also, endeavored to fulfil 
the intention expressed in the charter, of promoting the search 
for a north-west passage, it is unnecessary here to inquire ; suffice 
it to say, that, at the end of a century from the date of the con- 
cession, the question, as to the existence of such a channel, was 
nearly in the same state as at the commencement of that period. 
Hudson's Bay had been navigated by Middleton, in 1741, to the 
66th degree of latitude, beyond which it was known to extend ; 
Baffin's Bay had not been visited since the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century, when it was examined imperfectly to the 74th 
parallel. The territories west of both these seas were entirely unex- 
plored ; but accounts, which seemed to merit some credit, had been 
received from the Indians, of great rivers and other waters in that 
direction. The desired communication with the Pacific might, 
therefore, exist ; or the Pacific, or some navigable river falling into 
it, might be found within a short distance of places on the Atlantic 
side of the continent, accessible to vessels from Europe : and the 
determination of these questions became infinitely more important 
to Great Britain, after the acquisition of Canada. 

The region extending south-west, from Hudson's Bay to the 
great lakes, and the head waters of the Mississippi, had long been 
frequented by the traders from Canada and Louisiana, and had been 
partially surveyed by French officers and missionaries, by whom 
several journals, histories, and maps, relating to those countries, 
had been given to the world. This region was also visited, imme- 
diately after the transfer of Canada to Great Britain, by an Amer- 
ican, whose travels are here mentioned, because he is supposed to 
have thrown much light upon the geography of North-west America 
by his own observations, and by information collected from the 
Indians of the Upper Mississippi. 

This traveller. Captain Jonathan Carver, of Connecticut, who 
had served with some credit in the war against the French, partic- 
ularly in the country about Lakes Champlain and George, set out 
from Boston in 1766, and proceeded, by way of Detroit and 
Michilimackinac, to the regions of the Upper Mississippi, now 
forming the territories of Wisconsin and Iowa, where he spent 
two years among the Indians. His object was, as he says in the 
introduction to his narrative, " after gaining a knowledge of the 
manners, customs, languages, soil, and natural productions, of the 
different nations that inhabit the back of the Mississippi, to ascer- 
tain the breadth of the vast continent which extends from the 



142 TRAVELS OF CARVER. [1766. 

Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, in its broadest part, between the 43d 
and the 46th degrees of northern latitude. Had I been able," he 
continues, " to accomplish this, I intended to have proposed to 
government to estabHsh a post in some of those parts, about the 
Strait of Anian, which, having been discovered by Sir Francis 
Drake, of course belongs to the English. This, I am convinced, 
would greatly facilitate the discovery of a north-west passage, or 
communication between Hudson's Bay and the Pacific Ocean." 
This extensive plan he v^as, however, unable to pursue, having 
been disappointed in his intention to purchase goods, and then to 
pursue his journey from the Upper Mississippi, " by way of the 
Lakes Dubois, Dupluie, and Ouinipique, [the old French names of 
Rainy Lalce, Lake of the Woods, and LaJce Winyiijteg,] to the head 
waters of the Great River of the West, which falls into the Strait of 
Anian." * 

This Great River of the West is several times mentioned by Carver, 
under the name of Oregon, or Origan. In another part of his 
introduction, he refers to his account, in the journal, "of the 
situation of the four great rivers that take their rise within a few 
leagues of each other, nearly about the centre of the great con- 
tinent, viz., the River Bourbon, [Red River of the north,] which 
empties itself into Hudson's Bay, the waters of the St. Lawrence, 
the Mississippi, and the River Oregon, or River of the West, that 
falls into the Pacific Ocean at the Straits of Anian." At the con- 
clusion of his work, also, in speaking of a project which had been 
formed, in 1774, by himself, Mr. Whitworth, a member of the 
British parliament, and other persons in London, to cross the 
American continent, lie says that they would have " proceeded up 
the River St. Pierre, [^S*^. Peter^s,] and from thence up a branch 
of the River Messorie, till, having discovered the source of the 
Oregon, or River of the West, on the other side of the summit of the 
lands that divide the waters which fall into the Gulf of Mexico 
from those that fall into the Pacific Ocean, they would have sailed 

* Travels throughout the interior Parts of North America, in 1766 — 8, by Jona- 
than Carver, London, 1778. It consists of — an introduction, showing what the 
author had done and wished to do — a journal of his travels, with descriptions of the 
countries visited, and — an account of the origin, habits, religion, and languages, 
of the Indians of the country about the Upper Mississippi, which account occupies 
two thirds of the work, and is extracted almost entirely, and, in many parts, verbatim, 
from the French journals and histories. The book was written, or rather made up, 
at London, at the suggestion of Dr. Lettsom and other gentlemen, and printed for 
the purpose of relieving the wants of the author, who, however, died there, in misery, 
in 1780, at the age of 48. 



1766.] OREGON, OR RIVER OF THE WEST. 143 

down that nver, to the place where it is said to empty itself, near 
the Straits of Anian." 

From these declarations, it has been supposed, by many, that 
Carver was the first to make known to the world the existence of 
the great stream since discovered, and named the Columbia, which 
drains nearly the whole region, on the Pacific side of America, 
between the 40th and the 54th parallels of latitude ; and tiiat stream 
is, in consequence, frequently called the Oregon. On examining 
the journal of the traveller, however, we find no further mention 
of, or allusion to, his river than is contained in the following pas- 
sages : " From these nations, [called by him the Naudowcssies, 
the Assinipoils, and the KilUstinoes,] together with my own obser- 
vations, I have learned that the four most capital rivers on the 
continent of North America — viz., the St. Lawrence, the Missis- 
sippi, the River Bourbon, and the Oregon, or River of the West, (as 
I hinted in my introduction) — have their sources in the same 
neighborhood. The waters of the three former are within thirty 
miles of each other ; the latter, however, is rather farther west. 
This shows that these parts are tiie highest in North America ; and 
it is an instance not to be paralleled in the other three quarters of 
the world, that four rivers of such magnitude should take their rise 
together, and each, after running separate courses, discharge their 
waters into different oceans, at the distance of two thousand miles 
from their sources ; for, in their passage from this spot to the Bay 
of St. Lawrence east, to the Bay of Mexico south, to Hudson's 
Bay north, and to the bay at the Straits of Anian west, each of 
these traverse upwards of two thousand miles." The elevated part, 
to which Carver here alludes, is no otherwise described by him than 
as being near the Shining Mountains, " which begin at Mexico, and, 
continuing northward, on the back; or to the east, of California, 
separate the waters of those numerous rivers that fall into the Gulf 
of Mexico or the Gulf of California. From thence, continuing 
their course still northward, between the sources of the Mississippi 
and the rivers that run into the South Sea, they appear to end in 
about 47 or 48 degrees of north latitude, where a number of rivers 
arise, and empty themselves either into the South Sea, into Hud- 
son's Bay, or into the waters that communicate between these 
two seas." 

In the preceding extracts from Carver's book, embracing all that 
he has said respecting his Oregon, or Great River of the West, there 
is certainly nothing calculated to establish the identity of the stream. 



144 MISREPRESENTATIONS OF CARVER. [1766. 

to which those vague descriptions and allusions apply, with the 
Columbia, or with any other river. The Columbia does not rise 
within a few leagues, or a few hundred leagues, of the waters of 
the Red River, the St. Lawrence, or the Upper Mississippi, which 
latter Carver carefully distinguishes from the Missouri; nor does 
either of those rivers, flowing to the Atlantic, rise near the great 
dividing ridge of the Shining Mountains ; which ridge, moreover, 
does not end about the 48th degree of latitude, but continues more 
than a thousand miles farther north-westward. If, under circum- 
stances so different, we consider the head-waters of the Columbia 
to be the same described by Carver as the head-waters of the 
Oregon, we should, a fortiori, admit the mouth of the Columbia to 
be the same mouth of a river which Aguilar is said to have discov- 
ered in 1603. 

Carver's descriptions of places, people, and things, in the Indian 
countries, are vague, and often contradictory ; and, where they can 
be understood, they are, for the most part, repetitions of the 
accounts of those or of other parts of America, given by the old 
French travellers and historians, whose works he, nevertheless, takes 
great pains to disparage, whenever he mentions them.* In many of 
those works, the belief in the existence of a great river, flowing 
from the vicinity of the head-waters of the Mississippi, westward, 
to the Pacific, is distinctly affirmed, as founded on the reports of the 
Indians ; and on nearly all maps of North America, published 
during the early part of the last century, may be found one or more 
of such streams, under the names of River of the West, River of 

* In proof that no injustice is here done to Carver's memory, read his magisterial 
and contemptuous remarks on the works of Hennepin, Lahontan, and Charlevoix, in 
the first chapter of his account of the origin, manners, &c., of the Indians; and 
then compare his chapters describing, as from personal observation, the ceremonies 
of marriage, burial, hunting, and others, of the natives of the Upper Mississippi coun- 
tries, with tliose of Lahontan, showing the conduct of the Iroquois, of Canada, on 
similar occasions, by which it will be seen that Carver has simply translated from 
Laliontnn the whole of the accounts, even to the speeches of the chiefs. Carver's chapter 
on the origin of tlie Indians is merely an abridgment from Charlevoix's " Disserta- 
tion" on the same subject. His descriptions of the language, manners, and customs, 
of the inhabitants of the Upper Mississippi regions, are entirely at variance with those 
of the same tribes at the present day, as clearly shown by the observations of Pike, 
Long, and other persons of unquestionable character, who have since visited that part 
of America. Keating, in his interesting narrative of Long's expedition in 1823, 
expresses his belief that Carver " ascended the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony, 
that he saw the St. Peter, and that he may have entered it ; but, had he resided five 
months in the country, and become acquainted with the language of the people, he 
would not have applied to them the name of Kaudowessies, and omitted to call them 
the Dacota Indians, as they style themselves.'' 



1770.] moncaciitabk's account of a great river. 145 

Aguilar, River Thegayo, or some other, represented on the author- 
ity of accounts received from Indians, or of erroneous or fabulous 
narratives of voyages along the North Pacific coasts. When we 
consider the many and glaring plagiarisms, from the works above 
mentioned, committed by Carver, we certainly have a right to sus- 
pect, if not to conclude, that he derived from the same source 
every thing relating to his River of the West, which he pretends to 
have collected from the Indians of the Upper Mississippi. As to 
the name Oregon, or the authority for its use, the traveller is silent ; 
and nothing has been learned from any other source, though much 
labor has been expended in attempts to discover its meaning and 
derivation : it was, most probably, invented by Carver. 

The most distinct and apparently authentic of these Indian 
accounts of great rivers flowing from the central parts of North 
America to the Pacific, is that recorded by the French traveller 
Lepage Dupratz, as received from a native of the Yazoo country, 
named Moncachtahc. The amount of this statement is — that the 
Indian ascended tiie Missouri north-westward, to its source, beyond 
which he found another great river, running towards the setting 
sun ; this latter he descended to a considerable distance, though 
not to its termination, which he was prevented from reaching by 
wars among the tribes inhabiting the country on its banks ; though 
he learned, from a woman who had been made prisoner by the tribe 
with which he took part, that the river entered a gi"eat water, where 
ships had been seen, navigated by white men with beards. All this 
is related, with many accompanying circumstances, tending to 
confirm the probability of the narrative ; and there is, indeed, 
nothing about it which should induce us to reject it as false, except 
the part respecting the ships and white men, which may have been 
an embellishment added by Moncachtabe.* The course of this 
supposed stream is laid down on several maps of North America, 
published about 1 750, in which it is called the Great River of the 
West ; and one of these maps probably formed the basis of Carver's 
story. 

The first actual discovery of a river in the northernmost section 
of America, not emptying into the Atlantic or Hudson's Bay, was 
made, in 1771, by Mr. Samuel Hearne, one of the agents of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, who also obtained the earliest exact infor- 
mation respecting the regions west and north-west of that bay. 

The account may be found at length in the Mimoires sur la Louisiane, by the 
Abbe le Mascrier, published at Paris in 1753, vol. ii. p. 246. 

19 



146 hearne's travels. [1771. 

Hearne had been commissioned, by the directors of the company, to 
explore those regions, in order to determine, if possible, the question 
as to the existence of a northern passage between Hudson's Bay and 
the Pacific ; and also, more especially, to find a rich mine of copper, 
which was believed, from the accounts of the Indians, to lie on the 
banks of a river or strait, called, in their language, " the Far-off 
Metal River." From the general tenor of the instructions given 
to Hearne, it is evident that the directors were convinced of the 
non-existence of such a passage, and that they were merely anxious 
to have the fact demonstrated, in order to clear themselves from the 
imputation often cast upon them, of endeavoring to obstruct the 
progress of discovery in the regions under their control. 

Agreeably to these instructions, Hearne made, between 1769 and 
1772, three journeys from Fort Prince of Wales, the company's 
chief establishment on the western shore of Hudson's Bay, near 
the 60th degree of latitude, through the regions west and north- 
west of that place, which he examined, in various directions, to the 
distance of about a thousand miles. In his last journey, he dis- 
covered the Great Slave Lalce, and other similar collections of fresh 
water, from which issued streams flowing northward and westward ; 
and he traced one of these streams, which proved to be the Far-off 
Metal River, since called the Copper Mine River, to its termination 
in a sea, where the tides were observed, and the relics of whales 
were strowed in abundance on the shores. The mouth of this river 
was calculated rudely by Hearne to be situated near the 72d degree 
of latitude, and about 20 degrees of longitude, west of the most 
western known part of Hudson's Bay; and he learned from the 
Indians that the continent extended much farther west, and that 
there were high mountains in that direction. The sea into which 
the Copper Mine River emptied was supposed by the traveller to be 
"a sort of inland sea, or extensive bay, somewhat like that of 
Hudson ; " and he assured himself, by his own observations, that 
the territory traversed by him, between this sea and Hudson's Bay, 
was not crossed by any channel connecting the two waters : whence 
it followed, that no vessel could sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
north of America, without proceeding beyond the mouth of the 
Copper Mine River. Hearne also conceived that he had proved 
the entire impossibility of the existence of any direct communication 
between Hudson's Bay and the Pacific ; in which he, undoubtedly, 
assumed too much, as the northern termination of that bay had not 
then, nor has it to this day, been discovered. 



1776.] INSTRUCTIONS TO COOK. 147 

Hearne's journals were not published until 1795, though they 
were submitted, immediately after his return from his last journey, 
to the lords commissioners of the British Admiralty, who did not 
fail to perceive the importance of the information contained in 
them. The commissioners agreed with Hearne in considering the 
probability of reaching the Pacific through Hudson's Bay to be 
destroyed ; but they were, on the other hand, induced to hope that 
the newly-discovered sea, north of America, might be found to 
communicate, by navigable passages, with Baffin's Bay on the east 
and the Pacific on the west : and it was, in consequence, resolved, 
that ships should be sent, simultaneously, to explore the western 
side of Baffin's Bay and the north-easternmost coasts of the Pacific, 
in search of the desired channels of connection with the Arctic 
Sea. By an act of parliament, passed in 1745, a reward of twenty 
thousand pounds had been offered for the discovery of a north-west 
passage, through Hudsoji's Bay, by ships belonging to his majesty's 
subjects ; and, in order further to stimulate British navigators in 
their exertions, a new act, in 1776, held out the same reward to the 
owners of any ship belonging to his majesty's subjects, or to the 
commander, officers, and crew, of any vessel belonging to his 
majesty, which should find out, and sail through, any passage by sea 
between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, in any direction, or 
parallel of the northern hemisphere, to the northward of the 52d 
degree of latitude. 

Soon after the adoption of these resolutions, Captain James Cook 
returned to England from his second voyage of circumnavigation, 
in which he had completely disproved all reports of the existence 
of a habitable continent about the south pole ; and, his offer to con- 
duct the proposed expedition to the North Pacific having been 
accepted by the government, two vessels were soon prepared and 
placed under his command for that purpose. 

In the instructions delivered to Cook, on the 6th of July, 1776, 
he is directed to proceed, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, New 
Zealand, and Otaheite, to the coast of JVeiv Albion, which he was 
to endeavor to reach, in the latitude of 45 degrees. He was 
" strictly enjoined, on his way thither, not to touch, upon any part 
of the Spanish dominions on the western continent of America, 
unless driven to it by some unavoidable accident; in which case, 
he was to stay no longer than should be absolutely necessary, and 
to be very careful not to give any umbrage or offence to any of the 
inhabitants or subjects of his Catholic majesty. And if, in his 



148 INSTRUCTIONS TO COOK. [1776. 

farther progress northward, he should find any subjects of any 
European prince or state, upon any part of the coast which he 
might think proper to visit, he was not to disturb them, or give 
them any just cause of offence, but, on the contrary, to treat them 
with civihty and friendship." This latter sentence bore reference 
to the Russians ; the application of the name of New Albion to the 
north-west coast of North America showed that the British govern- 
ment had no intention to resign any rights to that region, which 
were supposed, or pretended, to have been acquired by Drake's 
visit, in 1579. 

On reaching New Albion, Cook was '• to put into the first con- 
venient port to obtain wood, water, and refreshments, and thence 
to proceed northward along the coast to the latitude of 65 degrees," 
where he was to begin his search for " such rivers or inlets as might 
appear to be of considerable extent, and pointing towards Hudson's 
or Baffin's Bays." Should he find a passage of that description, 
he was to endeavor to sail through it, with one or both of his ships, 
or with smaller vessels, of which the materials were to be carried 
out, prepared for being speedily put together ; should he, however, 
be satisfied that there is no such passage to the above-mentioned 
bays, sufficient for the purposes of navigation, he was to repair to 
the Russian establishments in Kamtchatka, and to explore the seas 
north of them, " in further search of a north-east or north-west 
passage, from the Pacific Ocean into the Atlantic or the North 
Sea." The instruction, not to begin the examination of the Amer- 
ican coast south of the 65th degree of latitude, was based on the 
proofs obtained by Hearne, that the continent extended much 
beyond that parallel ; before reaching which, indeed, it was expected 
that the coast would be found turning north-eastward, in the direc- 
tion of the mouth of the Copper Mine River. 

The navigator was, likewise, " with the consent of tlie natives, 
to take possession, in the name of the king of Great Britain, of 
convenient situations in such countries as he might discover, that 
had not been already discovered or visited by any other European 
power ; and to distribute, among the inhabitants, such things as will 
remain as traces of his having been there : but, if he should find 
the countries so discovered to be uninhabited, he was to take pos- 
session of them for his sovereign, by setting up proper marks and 
inscriptions, as first discoverers and possessors." 

The preceding extracts, from the instructions given to Cook, will 
suffice to explain the objects and views of the British government, 



1776.] COOK SAILS FOR THE PACIFIC. 149 

with regard to the part of America bordering upon the North Pacific 
Ocean ; which objects and views were, in every respect, conform- 
able with justice, with the existing treaties between Great Britain 
and other powers, and with the principles of national law then 
generally admitted in civilized countries. The part of America in 
question was known to Europeans only through the imperfect 
accounts of the Russian voyages, from which nothing certain was 
learned, except that islands and other territories, supposed to be 
extensive, had been found in the sea east of Kamtchatka. Of the 
discoveries of the Spaniards, the most recent respecting which any 
exact and authentic details had been communicated, were those 
made hy Vizcaino, in 1603 : he, however, had not advanced so far 
north as the 45th degree of latitude, where Cook was to begin his 
observations ; and between that parallel and the 56th, the southern- 
most limit of the explorations of the Russians, was a vast space of 
sea and land, concerning which all the accounts, previously given 
to the world, were generally regarded as fabulous. Before Cook's 
departure, information had indeed reached England, of voyages, 
made by Spaniards, along the north-west coasts of America, during 
the two preceding years,* and of colonies established by them in 
that quarter, which may, perhaps, have rendered the British 
government more solicitous to have those coasts examined by its 
own officers : this information was, however, too vague to have 
afforded any light for the direction of Cook's movements ; and it 
has been already shown that no more satisfactory accounts of those 
recent Spanish voyages had been obtained in England before 1780. 
With these instructions, Cook sailed from Plymouth on the 12th 
of July, 1776, in his old ship, the Resolution, accompanied by 
another called the Discovery, under Captain Charles Clerke. Both 
vessels were provided with every instrument and other means 
which science or experience could suggest, for the effectual ac- 
complishment of the great objects in view ; and that the officers 
and crews were also judiciously selected, the results conclusively 
proved. Among the lieutenants were Gore, (a native of Virginia,) 
King, Bligh, and Burney, who afterwards rose to eminence in their 
profession : of the inferior members of the body, one deserves to 
be named — John Ledyard, of Connecticut, who thus passed four 
years of his irregular and adventurous life in the humble capacity 
of a corporal of marines, on board the Resolution. 

* See page 124 of this History. 



150 COOK REACHES THE AMERICAN COAST. [1778. 

From England, Cook passed around the Cape of Good Hope, 
and through the Southern Ocean, into the Pacific ; and, after 
spending more than a year in examinations about Van Dieman's 
Land, New Zealand, the Friendly Islands, the Society Islands, and 
other places in the same division of the great sea, he bent his course 
towards the north, in the beginning of 177S. The first fruit of 
his researches in the North Pacific, was the discovery, on the 18th 
of January, of Atooi, (or Kauai,) one of the islands of a group 
near the 20th degree of latitude, to which he gave the name of 
Sandtvich Islands, in honor of the first lord of the Admiralty. This 
discovery was by no means the least important of the many eflfected 
by the great navigator ; as those islands, situated nearly midway 
between America and Asia, possessing a delightful climate, and a 
fertile soil, offer invaluable facilities for the repair and refreshment 
of vessels traversing the vast expanse of sea which there separates 
the two continents, and will, no doubt, be made the basis for the 
exertion of a powerful influence on the destinies of North-west 
America. 

From the Sandwich Islands, the British exploring ships took their 
departure for the north-west coast of America, in sight of which 
they arrived on the 7th of March, 1778, near the 44th degree of 
latitude, about two hundred miles north of Cape Mendocino. For 
several days afterwards. Cook was prevented from advancing north- 
ward by contrary winds, which forced him a hundred miles in 
the opposite course ; but he was thereby enabled to see and par- 
tially examine a larger extent of coast, and to determine the longi- 
tude of that part of America, which had been left uncertain by all 
previous observations. The weather at length permitting, he took 
tk e desired direction, and, running rapidly northward, at some dis- 
tance from the land, he was, on the 22d of the month, opposite a 
projecting point of the continent, a little beyond the 48th parallel, 
to which he gave the name of Cape Flattery, in token of the 
improvement in his prospects. 

The coast south of Cape Flattery, to the 47th degree, was care- 
fully examined by the English in search of the strait through which 
Juan de Fuca was said to have sailed to the Atlantic in 1592 ; and 
as, in the account of that voyage, the entrance of the strait into the 
Pacific is placed between the 41 th and the 48th parallels, over which 
space the American coast was found to extend unbroken, Cook 
did not hesitate to pronounce that no such passage existed. Had 
he, however, also traced the coast north and east of Cape Flattery, 



1778.] COOK AT ANCHOR IN NOOTKA SOUND. 151 

he would have discovered an arm of the ocean, seeming to pene- 
trate the continent, tlu'ough which he might have sailed many days, 
ere he could have been convinced that the old Greek pilot's account 
was not true in all its most essential particulars. This arm of the 
ocean was passed unobserved by the navigators, who, sailing north- 
westward, in front of its entrance, doubled a projection of the land, 
named, by them, Point Breakers, from the violence of the surf 
beating on it, and found immediately beyond a spacious bay, open- 
ing to the Pacific, in the latitude of 49i^ degrees. Into this bay 
they sailed, and anchored on its northern side, at the distance of 
ten miles from the sea, in a safe and commodious harbor, to which 
they gav^ the name of Friendltj Cove. 

The British vessels remained at Friendly Cove nearly all the 
month of April, in the course of which they were completely 
refitted, and supplied with wood and water, and the men were 
refreshed, in preparation for the arduous labors of the ensuing 
summer. During this period, they were surrounded by crowds of 
natives, who came thither from all quarters, by sea and by land, to 
visit and trade with the strangers, " bringing," says Cook, " skins of 
various animals, such as wolves, foxes, bears, deer, raccoons, pole- 
cats, martins, and, in particular, of the sea otters, which are found 
at the islands east of Kamtchatka. Besides the skins in their native 
shape, they also brought garments made of the bark of a tree, or 
some plant like hemp ; weapons, such as bows and arrows, and 
spears ; fish-hooks, and instruments of various kinds ; wooden 
visors of many monstrous figures ; a sort of woollen stuff or blan- 
keting ; bags iilled with red ochre ; pieces of carved work, beads, 
and several other little ornaments of thin brass and iron, shaped 
like a horse-shoe, which they hang at their noses, and several 
chisels, or pieces of iron fixed to handles." 

" In trafficking with us," continues the navigator, " some of them 
would betray a knavish disposition, and carry off our goods with- 
out making any return ; but, in general, it was otherwise, and we 
had abundant reason to commend the fairness of their conduct. 
However, their eagerness to possess iron and brass, and, indeed, 
any kind of metal, was so great, that few of them could resist 
the temptation to steal it, whenever an opportunity offered. They 
were thieves in the strictest sense of the word ; for they pilfered 
nothing from us but what they knew could be converted to the 
purposes of private utility, and had a real value, according to their 
estimation of things." Cook also observed among them a " strict 



t 
152 cook's account of the nootkans. [1778. 

notion of their having a right to the exclusive property of every 
thing that their country produces," which had been remarked, by 
Bodega and Maurelle, in the natives at Port Remedies, farther 
north. ''At first, they wanted our people to pay for the wood and 
water that they carried on board ; and, had I been upon the spot 
when these demands were made, I should certainly have complied 
with them. Our workmen, in my absence, thought differently, for 
they took but little notice of such claims ; and the natives, when 
they found that we determined to pay nothing, ceased to apply. 
But they made a merit of necessity, and frequently afterward took 
occasion to remind us that they had given us wood and water out 
of friendship." 

With regard to the disposition of these people, the English com- 
mander was, on the whole, inclined to judge favorably. " They 
seem," he says, " to be courteous, docile, and good natured, but, 
notwithstanding the predominant phlegm of their tempers, quick in 
resenting what they look upon as an injury, and, like most other 
passionate people, as soon forgetting it." Experience has, how- 
ever, proved that Ledyard read their characters more correctly, 
when he pronounced them " bold, ferocious, sly, and reserved ; 
not easily moved to anger, but revengeful in the extreme." 

From the number of articles of iron and brass found among these 
people, one of whom had, moreover, two silver spoons, of Spanish 
manufacture, hanging around his neck by way of ornament — from 
their manifesting no surprise at the sight of his ships, and not being 
startled by the reports of his guns — and from the strong inclination 
to trade exhibited by them, — Cook was, at first, inclined to suppose 
that the place had been visited by vessels of civilized nations before 
his arrival. He, however, became convinced, by his inquiries and 
observations during his stay, that this was by no means probable ; 
for though, as he says, " some account of a Spanish voyage to this 
coast in 1774 or 1775 had reached England before I sailed, it was 
evident that iron was too common here, was in too many hands, 
and the use of it was too well known, for them to have had the first 
knowledge of it so very lately, or, indeed, at any earlier period, by 
an accidental supply from a ship. Doubtless, from the general use 
they make of this metal, it may be supposed to come from some 
constant source, by way of traffic, and that not of a very late date ; 
for they are as dexterous in using their tools as the longest practice 
can make them. The most probable way, therefore, by which we 
can suppose that they get their iron, is by trading for it with other 



1778.] COOK SAILS FROM NOOTKA. 153 

Indian tribes, who either have immediate communication with 
European settlements upon the continent, or receive it, perhaps, 
tlirough several intermediate nations : the same might be said of 
the brass and copper found amongst them." The iron and brass, 
he conceived, might have been brought from Canada, or Hudson's 
Bay, and the silver spoons from Mexico ; and he imputed the indif- 
ference of the natives, respecting the ships, " to their natural indo- 
lence of temper and want of curiosity." 

On his arrival in this bay, Cook " honored it with the name of 
King George^s Sound ; " but he '•' afterwards found that it was called 
Nootka, by the natives," and it has, accordingly, ever since been 
known as Nootka Sound. No word has, however, been since found 
in the language of the people of this country more nearly resembling 
Nootka than Yuguatl, the name applied by them to Friendly Cove. 
The bay is situated on the south-west side of the large Island of 
Vancouver and Quadra, which was, until 1790, supposed to be a 
part of the American continent; and it communicates with the 
Pacific by two openings, the southernmost of which, the only one 
affording a passage for large vessels, lies under the parallel of 49 
degrees 33 minutes. This southern entrance is, undoubtedly, the 
Port San Lorenzo, in which the Spanish navigator Perez lay 
with his ship, the Santiago, on the 10th of August, 1774 ; and from 
that vessel, most probably, were stolen the two silver spoons of 
Spanish manufacture, which Cook saw at Nootka, in the possession 
of one of the natives. The place possesses many advantages, which 
will render it important, whenever that part of America shall be 
occupied, as it certainly will be, by an enterprising and industrious 
people. 

It was Cook's intention, on leaving Nootka Sound, to proceed, 
as speedily as possible, to the part of the coast under the 65th 
degree of latitude, from which he was to commence his search for 
a passage to the Atlantic. The violence of the wind prevented 
him from approaching the land for some days, and he thus, to his 
regret, left unseen the place, near the 53d parallel, " where geog- 
raphers had placed the pretended Strait of Fonte. For my own 
part," he continues, " I gave no credit to such vague and improb- 
able stories, that carry their own confutation along with them ; 
nevertheless, I was very desirous of keeping the American coast 
aboard, in order to clear up this point beyond dispute." At length, 
on the 1st of May, he saw the land, about the 55th parallel; and, 
on the following day, he passed near the beautiful conical mountain, 
20 



154 COOK BEGINS HIS SURVEY OF THE COAST. [1778. 

under the 57th, which had received from Bodega, in 1775, the name 
of Mount San Jacinto. This peak was called Mount Edgecumb by 
Cook, who also gave the appellation of Bay of Islands to the Port 
Remedios of the Spaniards, on its northern side. 

After leaving these places, the English observed a wide opening 
on the east, called by them Cross Sound, and beyond it a very high 
mountain, which obtained the name of Mount Fairiveather ; and, as 
the latter was situated near the 59th parallel, they had then advanced 
farther north than the Spaniards, or any other navigators, had 
proceeded from the south along that coast, and were entering upon 
the scenes of the labors of the Russians. Accordingly, as they ex- 
pected, on the 4th of the month, they beheld, rising from the shore 
in the north, at the distance of forty leagues, a stupendous pile of 
rocks and snow, which they immediately recognized as the Mount 
St. Elias, described in the accounts of Bering's voyage ; and, as 
the coast from its base was found to " trend very much to the west, 
inclining hardly any thing to the north," Cook determined to com- 
mence his survey at that point, hoping soon to discover some strait, 
or arm of the ocean, through which he might pass around the north- 
western extremity of America, into the sea bathing the northern 
shores of the continent. Of the existence of such a passage he 
was assured by the Russian geographers, on whose maps the whole 
space between Mount St. Elias and Kamtchatka was represented 
as occupied by a collection of islands and channels. 

With this expectation, the English advanced slowly along tiie 
coast, from the foot of Mount St. Elias, westward, to a considerable 
distance, and then south-westward, as far as the latitude of 54 J 
degrees ; minutely examining, in their way, every sinuosity on the 
shores of the ocean, and particularly those of the two great gulfs, 
named by them Prince William's Sound and Cook's River, which 
stretch northwardly into the land from the 60th parallel. They 
were, however, in each instance, disappointed ; for the coast was 
found to extend continuously on their right, bordered every where 
by lofty, snow-capped chains of mountains along the whole line thus 
surveyed : and, as Cook became convinced that these territories 
formed part of the American continent, which thus " extended 
farther to the west than, from the modern most reputable charts, he 
had reason to expect," he saw, with regret, that the probability of 
his finding a passage eastward into Baffin's or Hudson's Bays was 
materially diminished, if not entirely destroyed. He endeavored, in 
his course, to identify the places described in the narrative of 



1778.] COOK REACHES UNALASHFA. 155 

Bering's voyage; but this he found, almost always, impossible, 
though he assigned many of the names therein mentioned to spots 
wliich seemed to correspond, in some respects, with those so called 
by the Russians. 

Whilst this survey was in progi*ess, particularly at Prince Wil- 
liam's Sound, the ships were frequently visited by the natives of the 
surrounding country, who appeared to be of a different race from 
those seen farther south. They were as thievish as the Nootkans, 
though apparently less ferocious and revengeful ; and Cook gives 
several examples of their extraordinary apathy and indifference, 
which appears, from all subsequent accounts, to be their most 
remarkable characteristic. They, also, were well acquainted with 
the use of iron and copper, of which metals, particularly of copper, 
they possessed knives, or spear-heads, rudely made. Among them 
were likewise found many ornaments made of glass beads, which 
were evidently of European manufacture : yet the English could 
not learn that they had ever had direct intercourse with any civilized 
nation ; and Cook very justly concluded that the Russians " had 
never been among them, for, if that had been the case, we should 
hardly have found them clothed in such valuable skins as those of 
the sea otter." 

Proceeding south-westward from Cook's River, along the western 
side of the peninsula of Aliaska, the English, on the 19th of June, 
fell in with a group of small islands, near the 55th parallel, which 
appeared to correspond, in position, with the Schumagin Islands of 
Bering ; and, while sailing amongst them, they obtained, from some 
natives, a note written on paper, in an unknovi^n language, which 
they supposed to be Russian. Having reached the extremity of the 
land in that direction, they doubled the point, and, sailing again 
towards the east, they arrived, on the 27th, at a large island, which 
proved to be Unalashka, one of the Aleutian Archipelago, frequently 
mentioned in the accounts of the Russians as a place of resort 
for their traders : natives of the island only were found there ; but, 
as its position with reference to other points in America, and to 
Kamtchatka, was supposed to be represented with some approach 
to accuracy, on the chart published at St. Petersburg, the Eng- 
lish, after reaching it, were better able to determine their future 
course. 

Being still anxious to discover, if possible, during that season, 
how far America extended to the north-west. Cook departed from 
Unalashka on the 2d of July, and, sailing northward along the coast, 



156 COOK MEETS RUSSIAN TRADERS. [1778. 

he carefully examined all its bays and recesses, in search of a pas- 
sage towards the east, until he, at length, on the 9th of August, 
reached a point, in the latitude of 65 degrees 46 minutes, which 
his observations induced him to consider as the " north-western 
extremity of all America." This point he named Cape Prince of 
Wales, and thence proceeding westward, across a channel only fifty 
miles in breadth, he arrived at another point, supposed to be that 
described, in the account of Bering's first voyage, as the TchukotsJcoi 
Noss, which was ascertained to be the easternmost spot in Asia, and 
was accordingly named East Cape. The passage separating these 
capes, which the Russians had called Bering'' s Strait, was suffered 
to retain that appellation, in honor of the navigator who first sailed 
through it. 

Beyond Bering's Strait, the American coast was traced by the 
English, north-eastward upon the Arctic Sea, to Icy Cape, in the 
latitude of 70 degrees 29 minutes, where the progress of the ex- 
plorers was arrested by the ice. In like manner, the Asiatic coast 
was surveyed north-westward, to Cape North, in the latitude of 68 
degrees 56 minutes, the farthermost point to which it was then pos- 
sible to advance in that direction ; and, the warm season being by 
this time ended, Cook judged it prudent to retire to the south, 
deferring the continuation of his researches until the ensuing 
summer. He accordingly repassed Bering's Strait, and on the 
3d of October his ships were again anchored in the harbor of Sam- 
agoonda, on the north side of Unalashka. 

From this place, Corporal Ledyard was despatched on an ex- 
ploring trip into the interior of the island, where he at length dis- 
covered some Russian traders, who accompanied him back to the 
ships. The chief of these traders, named Gerassim Ismyloff, was 
an old and experienced seaman, who had formed one of the party 
under Benyowsky, in their adventurous voyage from Kamtchatka 
to China, in 1770, and had since been engaged in the navigation 
and traffic between Asia and the Aleutian Islands. He readily ex- 
hibited to Cook the few charts in his possession, and communicated 
what he knew respecting the geography of that part of the world 
as well as was possible, considering that neither of the two under- 
stood a word of the language of the other. The information thus 
received from Ismyloff, however, only served to show the entire 
inaccuracy of the ideas of the Russians with regard to America, 
and to convince the English navigator of the importance of his own 
discoveries. 



1779.] DEATH OF COOK. 157 

Leaving Unalashka on the 27th of October, the English ships 
continued their voyage southward to the Sandwich Islands, of which 
the two largest, called Oivijhee and Mowee, (^Hawaii and Mauni,) 
were first discovered in the latter part of November. They passed 
the winter on the western side of Owyhee, in a harbor called Kara- 
Tcooa Bay ; and there, on the IGth of February, 1779, the gallant 
and generous Cook was murdered by the natives, in an affray. 

Captain Charles Clerke, wlio succeeded to the command of the 
expedition after this melancholy event, endeavored, in the summer 
of 1779, to effect a passage through the Arctic Sea to the Atlantic. 
With this view, he left the Sandwich Islands in March, and, on the 
29th of April, reached the harbor of Petropawlowsk, in the Bay of 
Avatscha, the principal port of the Russians on the North Pacific, 
where the English were received with the utmost kindness by the 
officers of the government ; and their ships were objects of the 
greatest curiosity to the people, being the first from any foreign 
country which had ever visited that part of the world. After some 
days spent in Kamtchatka, Clerke sailed for Bering's Strait, beyond 
which, however, he was unable to advance, in any direction, so far 
as in the preceding year, in consequence of the great accumulation 
of the ice. His health at that time being, moreover, in a very pre- 
carious state, he returned to Petropawlowsk, near which he died, on 
the 22d of August. 

Lieutenant John Gore next assumed the direction of the enter- 
prise : but the ships were considered, by him and the other officers, 
unfit, from the bad condition of their bottoms and rigging, to en- 
counter the shocks of another season in that tempestuous quarter 
of the ocean ; and it was, thereupon, determined that they should 
direct their course immediately for England. They accordingly 
sailed from Petropawlowsk in October, and in the beginning of 
December they anchored at the mouth of the River Tygris, near 
Canton. 

With the stay of the English ships in China are connected some 
circumstances, which gave additional importance to the discoveries 
effected in their expedition. 

It has already been mentioned that, during the voyage along the 
north-west coasts of America, the officers and seamen had obtained 
from the natives at Nootka, Prince William's Sound, and other 
places which they visited, a quantity of furs, in exchange for knives, 
old clothes, buttons, and other trifles. Th'^«p furs were collected, 



158 THE ENGLISH SELL THEIR FURS AT CANTON. [1779. 

for the most part, without any reference to their value as merchan- 
dise, and were used on board ship as clothes or bedding ; in conse- 
quence of which, many of them had become spoiled, and others 
were much injured, before the ships reached Petropawlowsk. At 
that place, a few skins were sold to the Russian traders, who were 
anxious to purchase the whole on similar terms ; but the English 
officers, having, in the mean time, acquired information as to the 
higii prices paid for furs in China, prevailed upon the seamen to 
retain those which they still possessed, until their arrival at Canton, 
where they were assured that a much better market would be 
found. 

The hopes thus excited did not prove fallacious. The ships 
commanded by Gore were the only ones, with the exception of that 
under Benyowsky, in 1770, which had ever arrived at Canton 
directly from the coasts where furs were obtained ; and no sooner 
was the nature of the merchandise which they brought known in 
the city, than all became eager to purchase those precious objects 
of comfort and luxury, either for their own use or upon speculation. 
The Chinese, according to custom, began by offering prices much 
below the ordinary ; but the English, being on their guard, refused 
such terms, and, in the end, their whole stock of furs was sold for 
money and goods, to the amount of more than ten thousand dollars. 
The seamen, on witnessing these results, became, notwithstanding 
the previous length of their cruise, " possessed with a rage to return 
to the northern coasts, and, by another cargo of skins, to make 
their fortunes, which was, at one time, not far short of mutiny : " 
they were, however, restrained by their officers, and, after the com- 
pletion of the business at Canton, the ships sailed around the Cape 
of Good Hope to England, where they arrived in the beginning of 
October, 1780. 

With regard to the novelty of the discoveries effected in this 
voyage, it will be seen, on comparing the course of the English 
ships with those taken by the Spaniards, in 1774 and 1775 — that 
Cook saw no part of the west coast of North America, south of 
Mount San Jacinto or Edgecumb, which had not been previously 
seen by Perez, Bodega, or Heceta ; and, after passing that point, he 
was, as he frequently admits, aided, and in a measure guided, by the 
accounts of the Russian voyages. The observations of the English 
were, however, infinitely more minute, and more important, in their 
results, than those of any or all the other navigators who had pre- 



1779.] RESULTS OF COOk's DISCOVERIES. 159 

ceded them in the exploration of the North Pacific : for,, by deter- 
mining accurately the positions of the principal points on the coasts 
of Asia and America, bounding that sea, they first afforded the 
means of ascertaining the extent of those continents, and the degree 
of their proximity to each other, respecting which the most er- 
roneous ideas had prevailed ; and the comparative ease and security 
with which they executed this task, served to dispel apprehensions 
with regard to expeditions through that quarter of the ocean. 

NOTE. — In the "Exploration du Territoire de rOrcgon, des Californies," tfec, by 
M. Duflotde Mofras, published at Paris, in the summer of 1844, by order of the king, 
and under the auspices of Marshal Soult, the author asserts and assumes that he has 
proved incontestably that the Columbia River had been discovered and explored com- 
pletely by French officers and traders between 1716 and 1754, and that the whole 
country traversed by that stream rightfully forms part of Canada. In support of the 
latter assertion, he cites a passage from LTscarbot's '• Ilistoire de la Nouvelle France," 
published in 1617, claiming, as New Franco, the whole American continent, and the 
adjacent islands north of the tropic of Cancer; and a passage from the " Voyage de la 
Nouvelle France," published in 1632 by Champlain, who is content with all north of 
the 35th degree of latitude : and, in further confirmation, he refers to a manuscript Span- 
ish map, drawn in Florence in 160G, to a Dutch map, drawn at Edam in 1610, and to an 
English map, engraved at London in 1747, all of which, it seems, represent Canada as 
extending to the Pacific. In proof that the French had explored the Columbia regions, 
M. de Mofras mentions a number of orders, preserved in the archives of the marine and 
colonies at Paris, from French ministers, and from governors of Canada, for the exam- 
ination of the western territories — one of which, addressed, in 1730, by the governor, 
Beauharnois, to a trader named Verendrye, directs him "to send with his memoir 
a map draicnfrom his oicn olscrvations and the indications of the Indians, and, among 
others, of a Kree chief, embracing the course of the River of the West, and showing 
that it must empty above California, near the entrance discovered by Martin de Agui- 
lar." '■'■Nothing can be more clear,'' adds M. de Mofras; it will, however, be ob- 
served that the Swedish naturalist Kalm, who visited Canada in 1749, was informed 
by Verendrye himself that " the chief intention of this expedition, viz., to come to 
the South Sea, and to examine its distance from Canada, was not attained." 

" In fine," says M. de Mofras, (vol. ii. p. 254,) "the map accompanying the Me- 
moires des Commissaires du Roi et de ccux de sa Majeste Britannique en Amerique, 
engraved in 1757, demonstrates, also, that New France extended to the Pacific Ocean. 
It will be seen, hereafter, that it is not surprising to find upon this map, in the 45th 
degree of latitude, on the north-west coast of America, a great river, the direction of 
which is exactly that of the River Columbia." Now M. de Mofras could not have 
examined the map here cited by him when he made this assertion. The work con- 
taining it is a collection of documents presented by the commissaries of France 
and England, appointed, under the treaty of Aix la Chapclle, in 1748, to decide cer- 
tain disputed points of boundary in America. The map of America, to which M. 
Mofras refers, was drawn and presented by the French commissaries, as its title ex- 
pressly declares, to expose the extravagant pretensions of the British to territories in 
America: it does not contain the words '■'■Canada," or '■'■ Nouvelle France," or any 
other sign of French dominion ; the whole division of the continent, between the 
48th and the 31st parallels of latitude, being represented by strong lines and express 
notes, as included in the limits of the British provinces : nor does it show any large 
river falling into the Pacific north of the peninsula of California, nor any river en- 
tering that ocean north of the 36th degree of latitude. 



160 



CHAPTER VII. 
1780 TO 1789. 



Commercial Results of Cook's Discoveries — Settlements of the Russians in America 
■ — Scheme of Ledyard for the Trade of the North Bacific — Voyage of La Perouse 
— Direct Trade between the American Coasts and Canton commenced — Voyages 
of the English Fur Traders — Re-discovery of the Strait of Fuca — Voyage of 
Meares, who endeavors to find a great River described by the Spaniards — First 
Voyages from the United States to the South Pacific, and to Canton — Voyage of 
the Columbia and Washington, under Kendrick and Gray, from Boston to the 
North Pacific. 



Whilst Cook was engaged in his last expedition, Great Britain 
became involved in wars with the United States of America, France, 
and Spain ; and, as there was no prospect of a speedy termination 
of the contests at the time when the ships sent out under that 
commander returned to Europe, the British government considered 
it prudent to withhold from the world all information respecting 
their voyage. The regular journals of the ships, together with the 
private notes and memoranda of the officers and men which could 
be collected, were, in consequence, placed under the charge of the 
Board of Admiralty, and thus remained concealed until peace had 
been restored. Notwithstanding this care, however, many of the 
occurrences of the expedition became known, the importance, or 
the novelty, of which was such as to raise to the highest degree the 
curiosity of the public, not only in England, but in all other civilized 
countries. 

The wars having been, at length, concluded, the regular journals 
of the expedition were published at London, in the winter of 1784-5, 
under the care of the learned Bishop Douglas, with a number of 
maps, charts, and other illustrative engravings ; and it is now 
scarcely necessary to say, that the anticipations which had been 
formed as to the importance of their contents, were fully realized. 

The information obtained during the voyage, respecting the 
abundance of animals of fine fur on the north-west coasts of 
America, and the high prices paid for their skins in China, became 



1780.] STA^E OF THE FUR TRADE. 161 

generally diffused before the publication of the journals, and it did 
not fail to attract the attention of enterprising men in all marilime 
countries. The trade in furs had been conducted, almost wholly, 
by the British and the Russians, between whom, however, there had 
been no opportunity for competition. The Russians procured their 
furs chiefly in the northern parts of their own empire ; and they 
exported to China, by land, all such as were not required for their 
own use. The British market was supplied entirely from Hudson's 
Baf and Canada ; and a great portion of the skins there collected 
was sent to Russia, whence many of them found their way to China, 
though none had ever been shipped directly for the latter country. 
That the furs of Canada and Hudson's Bay might be sold advan- 
tageously at Canton was certain, from a comparison between the 
prices of those articles in London and in Canton ; and it was also 
clear that still greater profits might be secured by means of a direct 
trade between China and the north-west coasts of America, where 
the finest furs were to be obtained more easily than in any other 
part of the world. There could be, nevertheless, no doubt that, after 
the opening of such a trade, the prices in China would fall, while 
the difficulties and expenses of collecting the furs in America would 
be increased ; and it was, therefore, material that those who wished 
to reap the fullest harvests in this new field, should begin their 
labors as speedily as possible. 

The Russians were the first to avail themselves of Cook's dis- 
coveries, respecting which they had derived much information 
during the stay of the British ships at Petropawlowsk and Unalash- 
ka. In 1781, an association was formed between Gregory Scheli- 
kof, Ivan GoUikof, and other principal fur merchants of Siberia and 
Kamtchatka, for the more extensive and effective conduct of their 
business ; and three vessels, equipped by them for a long voyage of 
trade and exploration, sailed from Ochotsk, in August, 1783, under 
the command of Schelikof. In this expedition they were absent 
three years, in the course of which the shores of the American 
continent and islands, betw'een the south-west extremity of Aliaska 
and Prince William's Sound, were examined, and several colonies 
or factories were established, particularly on the large island of 
Kuktak, or Kodiak, near the entrance of the bay called Cook^s 
River. Schelikof was a man of great intrepidity and perseverance, 
well acquainted with the business in which he was engaged, and 
apparently never troubled by scruples as to the morality or humanity 
of any measure, after he had satisfied himself of its expediency. 
21 



162 ledyard's scheme for the fur trade. [178:2. 

He and his followers are said to have exhibited the most barbarous 
dispositions in their treatment of the natives on the coasts, whole 
tribes of whom were put to death upon the slightest prospect of 
advantage from their destruction, and often through mere wanton- 
ness of cruelty. 

In 1787, the Russians made establishments, also, on the shores of 
Cook's River ; and, in the following year, two vessels were sent 
from Asia by the trading association, under Ismylof (one of the men 
found by Cook at Unalashka) and Betscharef, who proceeded as 
far east as the bay at the foot of Mount St. Elias, called Yakutat 
by the natives, and Admiralty Bay by the Enghsh. It seems to 
have also been the object of these traders to take possession of 
Nootka Sound, in which, however, they were anticipated, as will 
be shown in the ensuing chapter. 

The empress Catharine had likewise become anxious to acquire 
glory by an expedition for discoveries in the North Pacific ; but, as 
none of her subjects were qualified to conduct such an enterprise, 
she engaged for the purpose Captain Billings, an Englishman, who 
had accompanied Cook, as assistant astronomer, in his last voyage. 
Under his direction, two ships were built at Petropawlowsk ; but 
they could not be completed before 1790, when Billings began his 
voyage, as will be hereafter related. 

Among other nations, the first attempt to engage in the direct 
trade between the north-west coasts of America and China appears 
to have been made by Mr. Bolts, an eminent English merchant, 
residing at Trieste, who, in 1781, equipped a vessel for that pur- 
pose, to be navigated under the imperial flag of Germany ; but he 
was obliged, from some unknown cause, to abandon the under- 
taking. 

A similar attempt was shortly after made, with no greater suc- 
cess, in the United States of America. John Ledyard, who has 
been already mentioned as one of the crew of Cook's ship during 
the last voyage of that navigator, having deserted, or rather es- 
caped, from a British frigate, in which he was serving against his 
countrymen, near New York, in 1782, prevailed on tlie celebrated 
merchant and financier, Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, to fit out a 
vessel, to be employed, under his direction, in tiie fur trade of the 
North Pacific. The pecuniary embarrassments of Mr. Morris, 
however, obliged him to abandon the enterprise before the vessel 
was ready for sea; and Ledyard, finding his efforts to procure 
cooperation for that object unavailing in America, went to France in 



1786.] VOYAGE OF LA pfiROUSE. 163 

1784, where he, in concert with Paul Jones, endeavored to interest 
the government, or private capitaHsts, in his scheme. 

The French gave no encouragement to Ledyard's plan for prose- 
cuting the fur trade ; and no private vessels were sent from that 
kingdom to the North Pacific until 1791.* The government of 
France, however, was not unaware of the advantages which might 
be derived from this branch of commerce ; and their great naviga- 
tor, La Perouse, on leaving his country for the Pacific, in 1785, 
was specially instructed to " explore the parts of the north-west 
coasts of America which had not been examined by Cook, and of 
which the Russian accounts gave no idea, in order to obtain infor- 
mation respecting the fur trade, and also to learn whether, in those 
unknown parts, some river or internal sea might not be found 
communicating with Hudson's Bay or Baffin's Bay."f 

The multiplicity of objects, in every department of science, to 
which La Perouse was required by his instructions to attend, during 
his voyage, prevented him from devoting more than three months 
to the north-west coasts of America ; and, of that time, he spent 
one third at anchor, in a bay at the foot of Mount Fairweather, 
near which he first saw the coast, on the 23d of June, 1786. In 
this bay, called, by La Perouse, Port des Francais,^ observations 
were made by the French in various points of science ; and they 
traded with the natives, of whose persons, language, arts, customs, 
&c., minute accounts are presented in the journals of the expedi- 

* After the failure of this scheme, Ledyard undertook, at the suggestion of Mr. 
Jefferson, then minister plenipotentiary of the United States in France, to proceed 
by land to Kamtchatka, thence by sea to Nootka Sound, or some other point on the 
west coast of North America, and thence across the continent, to the Atlantic 
states of the Federal Union. With this view, permission was obtained, through the 
agency of the celebrated Baron de Grimm, from the empress of Russia, for Ledyard 
to pass through her dominions ; and, thus protected, as well as aided, by the govern- 
ment of that empire, he advanced as far as Irkutsk, in Siberia, on his way to 
Ochotsk, where he proposed to embark for America. At Irkutsk, however, he was 
arrested, by order of the empress, on the night of the 24th of February, 1788, and 
was thence conveyed to the frontiers of Poland, where he was liberated, with an 
injunction not again to set foot in the Russian territory. The reasons for his expul- 
sion are unknown; but it was probably occasioned by the representations of the 
members of the Russian American Trading Company, already mentioned, who 
wished to keep their proceedings secret. On Ihe 15th of November following, Led- 
yard's irregular life was ended at Cairo, whither he had gone under the auspices of 
the African Association of London, on his way to seek for the sources of the Nile. 
— See the Biography of Ledyard, by Jared Sparks. 

t King Louis XVI. is said to have planned the expedition of La Perouse himself, 
and to have drawn up the greater part of the instructions with his own hand, before 
he communicated his intentions to any other person. 

t No account of this extraordinary place has been given by any other navigator. 



164 VOYAGE OF LA PEROUSE. [1786. 

tion. Quitting the Port des Fran^ais on the 4th of August, they 
sailed towards the south, and examined the coasts between Mount 
San Jacinto, or Edgecumb, and Port Bucareli, as well as those 
discovered by the Spaniards in 1774 and 1775, between the 54th 
and the 52d parallels, forming the western side of Queen Char- 
lotte's Island, the separation of which from the American continent 
seems to have been suspected by La Perouse. Continuing onwards, 
they passed the mouth of Nootka Sound without entering it, and, 
on the 8th of September, they reached Monterey, where they were 
received with the greatest attention, agreeably to orders previously 
sent thither from Mexico. At Monterey, the observations were 
renewed, and the latitude and longitude of that part of the coast 
were, for the first time, accurately determined ; after which, on the 
24th of the month, the French ships quitted the American coast 
forever. 

The remarks and surmises of this accomplished officer, on several 
points connected with the north-west coasts of America, display 
much sagacity and science ; but his labors were rendered almost 
useless to the world, by the delay in the publication of his journals, 
which did not appear until 1797, when nearly all the places visited 
by him had become well known, from the descriptions of many 
other navigators.* 

The first persons who actually engaged in the direct trade 
between the north-west coasts of America and China, were British 
subjects, though sailing, nearly all, under the Portuguese flag. 

At the time of the publication of Cook's journals, the British 
trade in the Pacific was divided between two great commercial 
corporations, each possessing peculiar privileges, secured to itself 
by act of parliament, to the exclusion of all other subjects of the 
same nation. Thus no British subjects, except those in the ser- 
vice, or bearing the license, of the South Sea Company, could make 

* Sailing from Monterey, La Perouse visited, in succession, Macao, the Philippine 
Islands, the coast of Tartary, Kamtchatka, the Navigators' Islands, and New Hol- 
land. After leaving the latter country, in February, 1787, nothing was heard of his 
ships until 1826, when information was received by the French government, in con- 
sequence of which a vessel was sent to the Pacific, and the wrecks of both vessels 
were discovered on the little island of Malicolo, one of the New Hebrides Archipel- 
ago, east of New Holland. From the accounts of the natives, it appeared that a 
number of the French landed on the island after the wreck of tlieir ships, and built 
a small vessel, in which they took their departure, and were doubtless lost. The 
journals of the expedition, and letters received from the commander and other 
officers, were published at Paris in 1797, under the direction of Clairet de Fleurieu, 
and were immediately translated into English and other European languages. 



1785.] VOYAGE OF HANNA. 165 

expeditions, for trade or fishery, by way of Cape Horn or Magel- 
lan's Straits, to any part of the west coast of America, or the seas 
and islands within three hundred leagues of it : while no British 
subjects, not employed or licensed by the East India Company, 
could proceed, for either of those purposes, around the Cape of 
Good Hope, to any seas or lands east of that point, between it 
and Magellan's Straits ; with the provision, however, that the privi- 
leges conferred on the East India Company should not be considered 
as interfering with those previously granted to the other association. 
All British vessels, found trading or fishing contrary to the acts by 
which these privileges were conferred, became liable to confiscation, 
and the persons directing such expeditions to heavy penalties. 

Thus the East India Company could carry on the direct trade 
between the north-west coasts of America and China, at the risk of 
a dispute with the South Sea Company, as to the extent of the 
interference with the privileges of the latter ; while those privileges 
were rendered entirely useless to the South Sea Company, for the 
purposes of that trade, by the exclusion of its vessels from the 
Chinese ports, which offered the principal, if not the only, profitable 
market for furs. Accordingly, some of the earliest commercial 
expeditions of the British to the north-west coasts were made under 
the flag of the East India Company ; while other subjects of that 
nation eluded the regulations of both companies, by engaging in 
the fur trade, under the flag of Portugal, or with Hcenses granted 
by the Portuguese authorities at Macao, near Canton. 

The earliest of these expeditions appears to have been that of 
James Hanna, an Englishman, who sailed from Macao, in a small 
vessel under Portuguese colors, in April, 1785,* and arrived at 
Nootka Sound in August following. The natives of that country 
at first refused to have any dealings with him, and endeavored to 
seize his vessel, and murder his crew ; but they were foiled in the 
attempt, and, after some combats between the parties, a trade was 
established, the result of which was, that Hanna brought back to 

* The following account of the movements of the fur traders in the North Pacific, 
between 1785 and 1789, is derived principally from the Narrative of the Voyage 
of the Ship Queen Charlotte, by her captain, John Dixon, or rather by her super- 
cargo, Beresford — the Narrative of the Voyage of the Ship King George, by her 
captain, Nathaniel Portlock — the Narrative of the Voyages of Captain John Meares, 
to which is prefixed a Dissertation on the Probability of a Northern Passage between 
the Atlantic and the Pacific, and the memorial and documents in proof, presented 
by Captain Meares to the British parliament in May, 1790. Many notable diflierences 
will be shown to exist between the statements of Meares in his narrative and hia 
memorial. 



166 VOYAGES OF PETERS, LOWRIE, AND MEARES. [1786. 

China, before the end of the year, furs worth more than twenty 
thousand dollars, in return for the old clothes, iron, and trifles, 
which he had carried out in the spring. 

In 1786, Hanna made another voyage to the coasts ; but he had 
then to compete with traders from Bengal and England, in conse- 
quence of which his profits were much less than in the preceding 
voyage. In the same year, also, an attempt was made to establish 
a direct trade between Macao and Kamtchatka, to be carried on 
under the Portuguese flag. With this view. Captain Peters was 
sent in the brig Lark to Petropawlowsk, where he made arrange- 
ments with Schelikof, the head of the American Trading Company, 
to supply them regularly with European and Chinese goods, taking 
furs in return ; but the Lark was lost, with nearly all on board, on 
Copper Island, one of the westernmost of the Aleutian Archipelago, 
in her voyage back to China, and no attempt for the same purpose 
was afterwards made. 

Voyages were, about the same time, made to the North Pacific, 
in search of furs, by Captains Lowrie and Guise, in two small 
vessels from Bombay, and by Captains Meares and Tipping, in two 
others from Calcutta, all under the flag of the East India Company. 
Lowrie and Guise went to Nootka Sound, and thence northward, 
along the coasts, to Prince William's Sound, from which they pro- 
ceeded to Macao. Meares and Tipping sailed to the Aleutian 
Islands, and thence to Prince William's Sound, after leaving which 
nothing was ever heard of Tipping or his vessel : Meares spent the 
winter of 1786-7 in that sound, where more than half of his 
crew died from want or scurvy. 

In the above-mentioned voyages, nothing of importance was 
learned respecting the geography of North-west America. In order 
to convey a clear idea of the extent and value of the discoveries 
effected by the fur traders in the three years next ensuing, it should 
be premised that, in the beginning of that period, the coast of the 
American continent was supposed, according to the best accounts 
and charts, to run in a regular, and almost unbroken, line north- 
westward, from Cape Mendocino, near the 40th degree of latitude, 
to Mount St. Elias, near the 60th ; the innumerable islands which 
are now known to extend in chains between the continent and the 
open Pacific Ocean, from the 48th degree to the 58th, being 
regarded as the main land of North America, The western sides 
of the most western of these islands had been examined, though 
imperfectly, in their whole length, by the Spaniards, in 1774 and 



1787.^ MAQUINNA, KING OF NOOTKA. 167 

1775: Cook had, in 1778, seen the portions about Nootka Sound 
and Mount San Jacinto, or Edgecumb, leaving unexplored the inter- 
mediate shores, which were represented — as expressed on the charts 
attached to his journal — according to the accounts of the Spanish 
navigators ; and those coasts had also been seen by La Perouse, 
who seems to have been the first to suspect their separation from 
the continent, though he took no measures to ascertain the fact, by 
penetrating any of the numerous openings which he observed when 
passing them in 1786. The coasts south of Nootka Sound, to 
Cape Mendocino, were not visited by the people of any civilized 
nation between the period of Cook's voyage and 1787 ; and the 
best charts of them were those of the Spaniards, founded on the 
observations of Heceta and Bodega. The parts respecting which 
the most accurate information had been obtained were those west- 
ward from Mount St. Ehas, to the Aleutian Islands : that division 
of the coast was, indeed, so thoroughly examined by Cook, in 1778, 
that very little was left for subsequent navigators, except to verify 
his statements and conclusions. 

The principal places of resort for the fur traders on the American 
coasts were, Nootka or King George's Sound, — Norfolk Sound, the 
Port Guadelupe of the Spaniards, near their Mount San Jacinto, — 
Prince William's Sound, and Cook's River. The two last-mentioned 
places, having been, in 1788, occupied by the Russians, under 
Schelikof, were seldom visited afterwards by the vessels of other 
nations ; and, as the country about Nootka was well supplied with 
wood fit for ship-building, and had a more agreeable climate than 
could be found farther north, it was generally selected as the point 
of destination, rendezvous, and departure, by the traders. The 
people there, as already mentioned, exhibited, at first, great oppo- 
sition to the foreigners ; but they soon acquired a taste for knives, 
blankets, and .other such articles of luxury or use, to gratify which 
they were ready not only to traffic, but even to engage in labor with 
some show of assiduity. Their king was named Maquinna: his 
relations, Wicanish and Tatoochseatticus, ruled over the tribes 
farther south-westward, inhabiting the shores of two large bays, 
called Chjoquot and Nittinat. Maquinna, whose name will fre- 
quently appear in the following pages, possessed in a high degree 
the cunning, ferocity, and vindictiveness, characteristic of his race ; 
for, though he occasionally exhibited evidences of better qualities, 
yet, like the other chiefs, he seldom lost an opportunity for the 



168 TAMAHAMAHA, KING OF OWYHEE. [1787. 

commission of an act of blood or perfidy, in gratification of his 
desires for revenge or profit. 

The importance of the Sandwich Islands to the commerce of the 
whole North Pacific was also soon made apparent ; and they 
became, in a few years, the favorite places of refreshment of all 
vessels navigating between Cape Horn and the north-west coasts 
of America, and between those coasts and China. Their soil is 
fertile, their climate delightful, and their productions are precisely 
those most useful to vessels engaged in long voyages. Their 
inhabitants, though naturally indolent, false, and treacherous, are 
not positively ferocious ; and they are endowed with much cunning 
and mechanical aptitude, which led them quickly to perceive the 
immediate benefits to be derived from an intercourse with strangers, 
and to submit to restraints, in order to secure such advantages. At 
the time of their discovery, the islands were governed by separate 
chiefs : in the course of the ensuing fifteen years, however, they all 
fell under the authority of one man, Mahe-Mahe, or Tamahamaha, 
who, by the possession of extraordinary acuteness and sagacity, 
combined with courage and steadiness of purpose, overcame all 
his rivals, and kept up something like a regular government until 
his death. The most formidable opponent of Tamahamaha was 
Tianna, a resolute and ferocious chief, who accompanied Meares to 
Canton in 1787, and there acquired many new ideas, which gave 
him, for some time, considerable advantages ; but he was, in the 
end, defeated and slain by his rival. 

The first discoveries, worthy of note, made on the north-west 
coasts of America, after Cook's voyage, were those of Captains 
Portlock and Dixon, who were sent from London, in 1785, in com- 
mand of the ships King George and Queen Charlotte, by a 
mercantile association, styled the King George's Sound Company. 
The object of this association was to monopolize the direct trade 
between the North Pacific coasts and China, with which view its 
operations were to be conducted in the following manner : — Under 
the protection of licenses, granted by the South Sea Company, its 
vessels were to proceed, by way of Cape Horn, to the north-west 
coasts of America, laden with goods, which were there to be bar- 
tered for furs ; the furs were to be carried to Canton, and there 
sold by the agents of the East India Company, agreeably to a con- 
tract with that body ; and the produce of their sale was to be 
vested in teas, and other Chinese commodities, which were to be 



1787.] VOYAGES OF PORTLOCK AND DIXON. 169 

brought by the ships, around the Cape of Good Hope, to England. 
Portlock and Dixon were both intelHgent men, well acquainted with 
the theory and practice of navigation, and their ships were well 
provided with instruments for ascertaining geographical positions ; 
the narratives published by them, after their return to England, 
though tedious to the general reader, from the minuteness of the 
details of trifling or personal matters, and not always strictly true, 
are, nevertheless, valuable, as showing the history of the fur trade 
in the North Pacific, and of the discovery of the American coasts 
of that ocean, between the time of Cook's expedition and the year 
1788. 

Portlock and Dixon left England together in August, 1785, and, 
passing around Cape Horn, and through the group of the Sandwich 
Islands, they reached Cook's River in July, 1786. There they met 
some Russians, though no establishment had been then formed by 
that nation east of the Island of Kodiak ; and, after a short stay, 
they proceeded to Nootka Sound, where they expected to spend 
the winter. They were, however, unable to enter that bay, or any 
other place on the American coast, in consequence of the violence 
of the winds, and were obliged to return to the Sandwich Islands, 
where they remained, very uncomfortably, until the spring of 1787 : 
they then again went to the coasts about Cook's River and Prince 
William's Sound, in the latter of which places they found Captain 
Meares, with his vessel frozen up, more than half of his crew dead, 
and the remainder suffering dreadfully from scurvy, as already men- 
tioned. The manner in which Meares was treated by his country- 
men on this occasion, lias been represented by him, in the narrative 
of his voyages, in a manner very different from that in which it 
appears on the pages of Portlock and Dixon ; the latter asserting 
that they rendered him every assistance in their power, while he, 
on the other hand, declares that their conduct towards him was 
selfish and inhuman in the extreme. 

At Prince William's Sound Dixon left Portlock, and proceeded 
along the coast, eastward, to the inlet on the south side of Mount 
San Jacinto, or Edgecumb, called Port Remedios by Bodega, but to 
which he thought proper to give the name of Norfolk Soujid. He 
" had, indeed, heard that the Spaniards anchored very near this 
place in 1775 ; " but this account, " he was afraid, was not absolutely 
to be depended on," although Maurelle's journal, containing accu- 
rate descriptions of that part of the coast, had been published in 
English, at London, in 1781. In like manner, Dixon claimed the 
22 



170 VOYAGES OF DUNCAN AND COLNETT. [1787. 

discovery of the land farther south, between the 54th and the 52d 
degrees of latitude, on the ground that it had not been seen by 
Cook, though it is specially marked on the chart of that navigator, 
as found by the Spaniards in 1775 ; and, having become convinced, 
from the reports of the natives, that this land was separated from 
the American continent by water, he bestowed on it the name of 
Q^ueen Charlotte'' s Island, and on the passage immediately north of 
it, that of Dixori's Entrance. From this part of the coast Dixon 
proceeded to Nootka, and thence, by the Sandwich Islands, to 
Canton, where he rejoined Portlock, who had passed the whole of 
the trading season on the coast, between Prince William's Sound 
and Mount St. Elias. 

In China, Portlock and Dixon found the price of furs much 
reduced, from the great quantities of those articles which had 
entered the country during the season ; so great, indeed, was the 
fall in their value, that, according to La Perouse, they were higher 
at Petropawlowsk than at Canton during the whole of 1787. From 
this circumstance, and also from the alleged unfairness of the East 
India Company's agents towards them, in the sale of their cargoes, 
the profits of the voyage of the King George and the Q,ueen 
Charlotte, from the teas and silks which they carried to England, 
were not sufficient to cover the expenses of their expedition. 

Before Portlock and Dixon quitted the north-west coasts of 
America, in 1787, they met two other vessels, the Princess Royal, 
commanded by Captain Duncan, and the Prince of Wales, under 
Captain Colnett, which had been also sent, by the King George's 
Sound Company, to prosecute the fur trade in the North Pacific. 
Duncan, in the following year, ascertained the separation of Queen 
Charlotte's Island from the main land, which had been assumed by 
Dixon, and, before him, by La Perouse ; he also explored the sea 
between that island and the continent, in which he discovered a 
group of small islands, named by him the Princess Royal's Archi- 
pelago ; and thence he ran down the coast, by Nootka Sound and 
Cape Flattery, to the 47th degree of latitude, from which he took 
his departure for the Sandwich Islands and China. 

The discovery of these islands, and of numerous openings in the 
coast, which appeared to be the mouths of channels, from that part 
of the Pacific, extending far eastward into the land, led to the 
suspicion that the whole north-western division of America might be 
a vast collection of islands ; and the old story of Admiral Fonte's 
voyage began to gain credit. The islands and reputed islands in 



1787.] REDISCOVERY OF THE STRAIT OF FUCA. 171 

question were supposed to be the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, 
through which the admiral was said to have sailed two hundred and 
sixty leagues before reaching the continent ; and the commanders 
of exploring vessels, sent from Europe and America to the North 
Pacific; for some years after, were generally directed to seek, near 
the 53d parallel, for the mouth of the river which he was reported 
to have ascended, into a lake communicating with the Atlantic. 

The name of the old Greek pilot, Juan de Fuca, was also, about 
the same time, rescued from oblivion, by the discovery, or redis- 
covery, of a "broad arm of the sea," stretching eastwardly from 
the Pacific, almost exactly in the position of the southern entrance 
of the strait, through which he declared that he had sailed from 
the Pacific to the Atlantic in 1592. This discovery was effected in 
1787 by Captain Berkeley, an Englishman commanding a ship called 
the Imperial Eagle, which had sailed from Ostend in the preceding 
year, under the flag of the Austrian East India Company. The 
passage thus found was situated immediately north of Cape Flattery, 
to the coast south of which point Cook had confined his search for 
it in 1778 ; and it opened to the ocean between the 48th and 49th 
parallels, instead of between the 47th and 48th, as stated in the 
account of the voyage of Fuca. Berkeley did not attempt to ex- 
plore the passage, but, sailing along the coast south of Cape Flattery, 
which had not been seen by the people of any civilized nation since 
Cook's voyage, he sent a boat ashore with some men, who were 
murdered by the savages, in the same manner, and almost at the 
same spot, where the Spaniards of Bodega's crew were massacred 
in 1775. In commemoration of this melancholy event, the name 
of Destruction Island was given to the small point of land near the 
continent, in the latitude of 47 degrees 35 minutes, which had, 
for the like reason, been called by the Spaniards Isla de Dolores. 
Berkeley, on his arrival at Canton, in November following, commu- 
nicated the account of his rediscovery of the Strait of Fuca to 
Meares, as expressly stated by the latter, in the Dissertation prefixed 
to the narrative of his voyages in the Pacific, pubhshed in 1790 ; 
though, in the narrative itself, Meares unequivocally claims as his 
own the whole merit of finding the passage. 

At the time when Berkeley made this communication, Meares 
was engaged in preparations for a trading expedition to the north- 
west coasts of America, of which a particular notice will be here 
presented ; as the circumstances connected with it led to the first 



172 SECOND VOYAGE OF MEARES. [1788 

dispute, and the first treaty, between civilized nations, relative to 
that part of the world. 

For the expedition in question, two vessels were fitted out at the 
Portuguese port of Macao, near Canton, in China, from which, as 
already mentioned, several voyages had been previously made to 
the north-west coasts of America, in search of furs. They were 
both placed under the direction of John Meares, a lieutenant in the 
British navy, on half pay, who sailed in the ship Felice as super- 
cargo ; the other vessel, the brig Iphigenia, also carried a British 
subject, William Douglas, in the same capacity : both vessels were, 
however, commanded, ostensibly at least, by Portuguese captains ; 
they were both furnished with passports, and other papers, in the 
Portuguese language, granted by the Portuguese authorities of 
Macao, and showing them to be the property of Juan Cavallo, a 
Portuguese merchant of that place ; the instructions for the conduct 
of the voyage were written only in the Portuguese language,* and 
contained nothing whatsoever calculated to afford the slightest 
grounds for suspicion that other than Portuguese subjects were 
interested in the enterprise ; finally, the vessels sailed from Macao 
on the 1st of January, 1788, under the Portuguese flag, and there 
is no sufficient proof that any other was displayed by them during 
the expedition. 

Notwithstanding these evidences of ownership and national char- 
acter, which appear to be complete and unequivocal, Mr. Meares, 
in the Memorial f addressed by him to the British government, in 
May, 1790, asserts that the Felice and Iphigenia, as well as their 
cargoes, were actually and bona fide British property, employed in 
the service of British subjects only ; that Cavallo had no concern 
nor interest in them, his name being merely used, with his consent, 
for the purpose of obtaining from the governor of Macao, who 

* See the Journal of Douglas, the captain or supercargo of the Iphigenia, attached 
to the Memorial of Meares, and the quotation from it in the ensuing chapter, at 
page 192. 

t The London Annual Register for 1790 contains what purports to be the Substance 
of the Memorial of Lieutenant Meares, &/'C., drawn up by Meares himself, or some one 
in his interests. In this Substance, the word Portuguese does not occur, nor is any 
thing mentioned relative to the apparent character of the vessels, which are, on the 
contrary, directly asserted to have been British in all respects, and navigated under 
the British flag. Meares's explanations, in his Memorial, relative to the arrangements 
with Cavallo, are all omitted, the following short paragraph being inserted in their 
place: — "Here Mr. Meares, by way of illustration, introduces a transaction no 
otherwise connected with his narrative, but as it proves the merchandise, &c., of 
which the British ships were plundered, to have been British property." • ! ! Such 
are the materials from v/hich histories are generally composed. 



1788.] • INSTRUCTIONS TO MEARES. 173 

connived at the whole deception, permission to navigate under the Por- 
tuguese flag, and thereby to evade the excessive port charges demand- 
ed, by the Chinese authorities, from vessels of all other European 
nations ; and that Messrs. Meares and Douglas were really the 
commanders of the vessels in which they respectively sailed, instead 
of the Portuguese subjects, who figure as such in all the papers. 
Some of these assertions may have been true ; yet the documents 
annexed to the Memorial conclusively prove that all these deceptive 
appearances were kept up at Nootka Sound, where there were no 
Chinese authorities ; though, in the narrative of the voyage, pub- 
lished by Mr. Meares, with the Memorial and documents, no hint 
is given that either of the vessels were, or ever seemed to be, other 
than British. 

The instructions, of which an English copy or version — dated 
China, December ^ith, 1181, and signed The Merchant Proprietors 
— is appended to the Memorial, contain general directions for the 
conduct of the voyage, but 7io allusion whatsoever to the acquisition 
of lands, the erection of buildings, or the formation of settlements or 
establishments of any kind, in America or elsewhere. The Felice 
was to go to Nootka Sound, from which she was to make trips 
northward and southward, for the purposes of trade and explora- 
tion ; the Iphigenia was to sail first to Cook's River, and thence to 
trade along the coasts, southward, to Nootka, where she was ex- 
pected to arrive in September : all the furs collected were then to 
be placed in one of the vessels, and brought to Macao, the other 
vessel remaining, until the spring, either on the American coast or 
at the Sandwich Islands. These instructions conclude with the 
following remarkable order to the commanders of the vessels : — 
" Should you, in the course of your voyage, meet with any Russian, 
English, or Spanish vessels, you will treat them with civility and 
friendship, and allow them, if authorized, to examine your papers ; 
but you must, at the same time, guard against surprise. Should 
they attempt to seize you, or even to carry you out of your way, 
you will prevent it by every means in your power, and repel force 
by force. You will, on your arrival in the first port, protest, before 
a proper officer, against such illegal procedure, and ascertain, as 
nearly as you can, the value of your vessel and cargo, sending your 
protest, with a full account of the transaction, to us at China. 
Should you, in such a conflict, have the superiority, you will take 
possession of the vessel that attacked you, and bring both, with the 



174 - MEARES ArailVES AT NOOTKA. [1788. 

officers and crew, to China, tliat they may be condemned as legal 
prizes, and the crews punished as pirates." 

• Tlie latter part of these instructions, independently of numerous 
other circumstances connected with the expedition, is sufficient, 
alone, to show that the owners of the Felice and Iphigenia meant 
to represent them as Portuguese vessels. As British vessels, they 
could not legally navigate the North Pacific Ocean, being unpro- 
vided with licenses or authority from the South Sea or the East 
India Company : if found so doing, they would be subject to 
seizure, and their officers and crew to punishment ; and it was, 
doubtless, in order to evade such penalties, to which they might 
have been subjected by coming in contact with the vessels of the 
King George's Sound Company, that their commanders were 
directed to take, and bring to a Portuguese port, for trial before 
Portuguese courts, any English vessels which should attempt to 
arrest them in their voyages. 

From Macao the Iphigenia went to Cook's River, at which place, 
and others farther south-east, she passed the summer in trading. 
The Felice sailed direct to Nootka Sound, where her crew imme- 
diately began the construction of a small vessel, on the shore of 
Friendly Cove, near which was situated the village of Maquinna, 
the king of the surrounding country. Meares, being desirous, whilst 
this work was in progress, to take a voyage along the coast to the 
south, made arrangements with Maquinna, who, as related in the 
narrative of the expedition, " most readily consented to grant us a 
spot of ground in his territory, whereon an house might be built, 
for the accommodation of the people we intended to leave behind, 
and also promised us his assistance and protection for the party who 
were destined to remain at Nootka during our absence. In return 
for this kindness, and to insure the continuance of it, the chief was 
presented with a pair of pistols, which he had regarded with an eye 
of solicitation ever since our arrival. Upon this spot a house, suf- 
ficiently capacious to contain all the party intended to be left at 
the sound, was erected ; a strong breastwork was thrown up around 
it, enclosing a considerable area of ground, which, with one piece 
of cannon, placed in such a manner as to command the cove and 
village of Nootka, formed a fortification sufficient to secure the 
party from any intrusion." 

That this spot of ground was granted by Maquinna, and was to 
be occupied by Meares, only for temporary purposes, is clear from 



1788.] MEARES AT THE STRAIT OF FUCA. 175 

the above statement ; and Meares nowhere in his narrative pretends 
that he acquired permanent possession of it, or of any other land in 
America. On the contrary, he expressly says that, " as a bribe to 
secure Maquinna's attachment, he was promised that, when we 
finally left the coast, he should enter into full possession of the 
house, and all the goods thereunto belonging." In the Memorial 
addressed to his government, however, Meares declares that, " im- 
mediately on his arrival at Nootka Sound, he purchased from 
Maquinna, the chief of the district surrounding that place, a spot 
of ground, whereon he built an house, for his occasional residence, 
as well as for the more convenient pursuit of his trade among the 
natives, and hoisted British colors thereon." Of this' asserted 
purchase of land and erection of buildings at Nootka, no evidence 
or mention whatsoever is to be found among the documents sub- 
mitted with the Memorial to the British ministry, except in the 
deposition of William Graham, of Grub Street, a seaman of the 
Felice, taT<:en in London after the date of the Memorial. 

Having completed these arrangements, Meares sailed from Nootka 
in the Felice, leaving a part of his crew employed in building the 
small vessel, and proceeded to the entrance of the passage supposed 
to be the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which, as he expressly states in 
the Dissertation prefixed to his narrative, had been discovered in 
the preceding year by Berkeley. The following extract from his 
narrative will serve still further to show what value is to be placed 
on his testimony in matters in which his own reputation or interests 
are involved : — 

" Ju7ie 29th. At noon the latitude was 48 degrees 39 minutes 
north, at which time we had a complete view of an inlet, whose 
entrance appeared very extensive, bearing east-south-east, distant 
about six leagues. We endeavored to keep up with the shore as 
much as possible, in order to have a perfect view of the land. This 
was an object of particular anxiety, as the part of the coast along 
which we were now sailing had not been seen by Captain CooJc, and 
we Icnew no other navigator, said to have been this way, except 
Maurelle ; and his chart, which we now had on board, convinced 
us that he had either never seen this part of the coast, or that he 
had purposely misrepresented it. By three o'clock in the afternoon, 
we arrived at the entrance of the great inlet, which appeared to be 
twelve or fourteen leagues broad. From the mast head, it was 
observed to stretch to the east by the north, and a clear and 
unbounded horizon was seen, in this direction, as far as the eye 



176 MEARES SEEKS FOR THE GREAT RIVER. [1788. 

could reach. The strongest curiosity impelled us to enter this 
strait, which we shall call by the name of its original discoverer, 
John de Fuca." 

To examine the passage, — of which he thus claims the discovery, 
after having distinctly assigned the merit of it to another, — Meares 
sent his mate, Duffin, with a party of men, in a boat. In a few 
days the boat returned, with several of her crew disabled by 
wounds received in a conflict with the natives on the northern 
shore. " She had sailed," writes Meares, " near thirty leagues up 
the strait ; and, at that distance from the sea, it was fifteen leagues 
broad, with a clear horizon stretching to the east for fifteen leagues 
more." Yet, from Duffin's journal, which is given entire in Mr. 
Meares's work, it seems that the boat did not advance ten miles 
within the strait ; and we now know that the width of the passage 
nowhere, within thirty leagues of its mouth, exceeds five leagues. 

From the entrance of this passage, which has ever since been 
distinguished by the name of Strait of Fuca, Meares sailed along 
the shore of the continent, towards the south. His object was to 
examine the opening in the coast, laid down on Spanish charts in 
his possession, near the 46th degree of latitude, under the name 
Rio de San Roque, or River of Saint Roc, which had been first 
observed by Heceta, on the 16th of August, 1775, as mentioned in 
the account of that voyage.* Proceeding in this course, he, on the 
5th of July, remarked a headland, in the latitude of 46 degrees 
47 minutes, which he named Cope Shoalwater ; on the following 
day, he writes in his journal, — 

" At half past ten, being within three leagues of Cape Shoalwater, 
we had a perfect view of it ; and, with the glasses, we traced the 
line of coast to the southward, which presented no opening that 
promised any thing like an harbor. An high, bluff' promontory 
bore off us south-east, at the distance of only four leagues, for 
which we steered to double, with the hope that between it and 
Cape Shoalwater we should find some sort of harbor. We now 
discovered distant land beyond this promontory, and we pleased 
ourselves with the expectation of its being Cape St. Roc of the 
Spaniards, near which they are said to have found a good port. 
By half past eleven, we doubled this cape, at the distance of three 
miles, having a clear and perfect view of the shore in every part, 
on which we did not discern a living creature, or the least trace of 
habitable life. A prodigious easterly swell rolled on the shore, and 

* Pa?e 120. 



1788.] MEARES DOES NOT FIND THE GREAT RIVER. 177 

the soundings gradually decreased from forty to sixteen fathoms, over 
a hard, sandy bottom. After we had rounded the promontory, a 
large bay, as we had imagined, opened to our view, that bore a very 
promising appearance, and into which we steered with every en- 
couraging expectation. The high land that formed the boundaries 
of the bay was at a great distance, and a flat, level country occu- 
pied the intervening space ; the bay itself took rather a westerly 
direction. As we steered in, the water shoaled to nine, eight, and 
seven fathoms, when breakers were seen from the deck, right 
ahead, and, from the mast head, they were observed to extend 
across the bay ; we therefore hauled out, and directed our course to 
the opposite shore, to see if there was any channel, or if we could 
discover any port. The name of Cape Disappointment was given 
to the promontory, and the bay obtained the title of Deception Bay. 
By an indifferent meridian observation, it lies in the latitude of 46 
degrees 10 minutes north, and in the computed longitude of 235 
degrees 34 minutes east. 

" We can now with safety assert that there is no such river as that 
of St. Roc exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts. To those of 
Maurellc we made continual reference, but without deriving any 
information or assistance from them. We now reached the opposite 
side of the bay, where disappointment continued to accompany us ; 
and, being almost certain that there we should obtain no place of 
shelter for the ship, we bore up for a distant headland, keeping our 
course within two miles of the shore." This distant headland, in 
the latitude of 45 degrees 37 minutes, named by Meares Cape 
Lookout, and probably the same called by the Spaniards Cope 
Falcon, was the southernmost point seen by him ; thence he re- 
turned to the Strait of Fuca, without again observing the land, 
having, as he conceived, " traced every part of the coast, which 
unfavorable weather had prevented Captain Cook from approaching." 

The language of Mr. Meares in the preceding extracts, though 
somewhat ungrammatical, is yet clear and explicit. He records 
with satisfaction his conviction, founded on his own observations, 
that " no such river as that of St. Roc exists, as laid doivn in the 
Spanish charts ; " in token of which conviction, he assigns the 
names of Deception Bay and Cape Disappointment to the places on 
the American coast, near the latitude of 46 degrees 10 minutes, 
where the mouth of the river should have been found, according to 
the Spanish charts. Yet, strange though it may appear, the com- 
missioners, appointed by the British government, in 1826, to treat 
23 



178 MEARES RETURNS TO CHINA. [1788. 

with the plenipotentiary of the United States at London, on the 
subject of the claims of the respective parties to territories on the 
north-west side of America, insisted that Meares, on this occasion, 
discovered the great River Columbia, which actually enters the 
Pacific at Deception Bay, and cited, in proof of their assertion, the 
very parts of his narrative above extracted.* 

On his way back to Nootka, Meares visited the two large bays, 
called by the natives Clyoquot and Nittinat, and by himself Port 
Cox and Port EJingham, situated a little north-west of the entrance 
of Fuca's Strait, where, he declares in his Memorial to Parliament, 
" he obtained from Wicanish, the chief of the surrounding districts, 
in consequence of considerable presents, the promise of a free and 
exclusive trade with the natives of the district, as also permission 
to build any storehouses or other edifices which he might judge 
necessary ; and he also acquired the same privileges of exclu- 
sive trade from Tatooche, the chief of the country bordering upon 
the Strait of Fuca, and purchased from him a tract of land within 
the said strait, which one of his officers took possession of, in the 
king's name, calling the same Tatooche, in honor of the chief." 
These purchases and cessions of territory are not, however, in any 
manner noticed, either in the documents annexed to the Memorial, 
or in the narrative of the voyage, which is most tediously minute 
as to the circumstances of Mr. Meares's interviews with those chiefs. 

At the end of July, Meares returned to Nootka Sound, where 
the Iphigenia soon after arrived from the northern coasts, laden with 
furs. The small vessel, which had been begun at Friendly Cove, 
was then launched, and received the name of the North-West 
America ; and Meares, considering the season as not too far ad- 
vanced for a voyage across the Pacific, transferred to the Felice 
all the furs which had been collected, and sailed in her, on the 
28th of September, for China, leaving directions that the Iphigenia 
and the North-West America should proceed to the Sandwich 
Islands for the winter, and return in the following spring to Nootka, 
where he would rejoin them. 

Before the departure of Meares from Nootka, two other vessels 
entered the sound, whose voyages merit particular attention. 

Immediately after the recognition of the independence of the 
United States of America, the citizens of that republic resumed the 



* See British statement, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of 
this volume, letter H. 



1787.] AMERICANS ENGAGE IN TRADE IN THE PACIFIC. .179 

whale and seal fishery around Cape Horn, which they had carried 
on before the revolution, and also engaged in the direct trade with 
India and China. In the latter countries, however, they labored 
under great disadvantages, from the inferiority in value of the 
articles carried thither to those brought back by them, in conse- 
quence of which they were obliged to take out large quantities of 
specie, in order to obtain full homeward cargoes. With the view 
of obviating this inequality, some merchants of Boston, in 1787, 
formed an association for the purpose of combining the fur trade 
of the North Pacific with the China trade, as attempted by the 
King George's Sound Company of London ; and in such an enter- 
prise they certainly had reason to anticipate success, as, with 
industry and nautical skill unsurpassed by any other nation, the 
Americans were free from the restrictions imposed on British 
subjects by the charters of the South Sea and East India Com- 
panies.* 

In prosecution of this scheme, the ship Columbia, of two hundred 
and twenty tons, and the sloop Washington, of ninety tons, were 
fitted out at Boston in the summer of 1787, and laden with blan- 
kets, knives, iron bars, copper pans, and other articles proper for the 
trade with the Indians on the north-west coasts. The Columbia 
was commanded by John Kendrick, to whom was intrusted the 

* The first American citizens who engaged in the whaling and sealing business 
around Cape Horn, after the peace of 1783, were the Nantucket men, as will be here- 
after more particularly stated. 

The first American vessel which entered the port of Canton was the ship Empress 
of China, from New York, commanded by Daniel Parker, with Samuel Shaw as 
supercargo : she arrived in China in the latter part of the summer of 1784, and 
returned to New York in May of the following year. Mr. Shaw was appointed 
consul of the United States at Canton in January, 1796; and, on the 31st of Decem- 
ber of the same year, he addressed to his government, from Canton, an interesting 
memoir on the state of commerce at that place, which still remains, with many other 
communications from him, unpublished, in the archives of the Department of State at 
Washington. In 1787, not less than five American vessels were employed in the 
trade with China; among them were the Canton, under Captain Thomas Truxton, 
who afterwards distinguished himself in the naval service of his country, and the old 
frigate AlUanre, so celebrated during the war of the revolution, which had been sold 
by order of Congress, and fitted out as a trading vessel, under the command of John 
Reed. The Alliance entered Canton on the 29th of December, 1787; and her arrival 
at that season caused much astonishment, as it had been previously considered impos- 
sible for a vessel to sail from the Cape of Good Hope to China between October and 
April, on account of the violence of the winds, blowing constantly, during that 
period, from the north-east. Reed, however, had steered eastward from the Cape of 
Good Hope, to the southern extremity of Van Dieraan's Land, around the east coasts 
of which island, and of New Holland, he sailed into the China Seij.; and the course 
thus pointed out by him has been since often taken, especially by American vessels. 



180 



VOYAGES OF THE COLUMBIA AND WASHINGTON. 



[1788. 



direction of the expedition ; and her mate was Joseph Ingraham, 
whose name will often appear in the following pages. The 
master of the Washington was Robert Gray. They were provided 
with sea letters issued by the federal government, agreeably to a 
resolution of Congress, and with passports from the state of Massa- 
chusetts ; and they received letters from the Spanish minister 
plenipotentiary in the United States, recommending them to the 
attention of the authorities of his nation on the Pacific coasts. 
They, moreover, carried out, for distribution at such places as they 
might visit, a number of small copper coins, then recently issued 
by the state of Massachusetts,* and likewise medals of copper, 
struck expressly for the purpose, of one of which a representation is 
here given. 




The two vessels sailed together from Boston on the 30th of 
September, 1787 : thence they proceeded to the Cape Verd Islands, 
and thence to the Falkland Islands, in each of which places they 
procured refreshments ; and, in January, 1788, they doubled Cape 
Horn, immediately after which they were separated during a violent 
gale. The Washington, continuing her course through the Pacific, 
made the north-west coast in August, 1788, near the 46th degree 
of latitude, where she was in danger of destruction, having grounded 
while attempting to enter an opening, which was, most probably, 
the mouth of the great river afterwards named by Gray the 
Columbia. She was also attacked there by the savages, who killed 
one of her men, and wounded the mate ; but she escaped without 
further injury, and, on the 17th of September, reached Nootka 

Alexander Mackenzie, in July, 1793, found, in the possession of a native of the 
country east of the Strait of Fuca, a " halfpenny of the state of Massachusetts Bay, 
coined in 1787," which was doubtless one of those taken out by Kendrick and 
Gray. 



1788.] VOYAGES OF THE COLUMBIA AND WASHINGTON. 181 

Sound, where the Felice and Iphigenia were lying, as already 
mentioned.* The Columbia did not enter the sound until some 
days afterwards. She had been seriously injured in the storm 
which 'separated her from her consort ; and Kendrick was obliged, 
in consequence, to put into the harbor of the Island of Juan Fer- 
nandez, where he was received with great kindness, and aided 
in refitting his vessel, by Don Bias Gonzales, the commandant of 
the Spanish garrison. The repairs having been completed, the 
Columbia continued her voyage, and arrived at Nootka, which 
had been selected as the place of rendezvous, without further 
accident, in October. 

Soon after the arrival of the Columbia at Nootka, the Iphigenia 
and North- West America took their departure for the Sandwich 
Islands, where they remained until the spring of 1789. The two 
American vessels spent the winter in the sound, where the Columbia 
also lay during the whole of the following summer, whilst the 
important events related in the next chapter were in progress. 

* Meares, in his narrative, gives the following account of the arrival of the 
Washington at Nootka Sound : — 

" September 17th, 1788. — A sail was seen in the offing. The long-boat was imme- 
diately sent to her assistance, which, instead of the British vessel we expected, 
conveyed into the sound a sloop named the Washington, from Boston, in New 
England, of about one hundred tons' burthen. Mr. Gray, the master, informed us 
that he had sailed, in company with his consort, the Columbia, a ship of tiiree hundred 
tons, in the month of August, 1787, being equipped, under the patronage of Congress, 
to examine the coast of America, and to open a fur trade between New Eno-land and 
this part of the American continent, in order to provide funds for their China ships, 
to enable them to return home teas and China goods. The vessels were separated in 
a heavy gale of wind, in the latitude of 59 south, and had not seen each other since 
the period of their separation ; but, as King George's Sound was the place of ren- 
dezvous appointed for them, the Columbia, if she was safe, was every day expected 
to join her consort at Nootka. Mr. Gray informed me that he had put into an harbor 
on the coast of New Albion, where he got on shore, and was in danger of being lost 
on the bar ; he was also attacked by the natives, had one man killed, and one of his 
officers wounded, and thought himself fortunate in having been able to make his 
escape. This harbor could only admit vessels of small size, and must lie somewhere 
near the cape to which we had given the name of Cape Lookout." 

Tliat this harbor was the mouth of the great river since called the Columbia, is most 
probable from its situation, and because there is no evidence or reason to suppose that 
Gray visited that part of the coast on any other occasion prior to his meeting with 
Vancouver, on the 29th of April, 1792, as will be related in the eleventh chapter. 



182 



CHAPTER VIII. 



1788 AND 1789. 



Uneasiness of the Spanish Government at the Proceedings of the Fur Traders in the 
North Pacific — Voyage of Observation by Martinez and Haro to the Russian 
American Settlements — Remonstrances of the Court of Madrid to that of St. 
Petersburg, against the alleged Encroachments of the latter Power — Martinez 
and Haro sent by the Viceroy of Mexico to take Possession of Nootka Sound — 
Seizure of British and other Vessels at Nootka by Martinez — Captain Gray, in 
the Washington, explores the East Coast of Queen Charlotte's Island, and en- 
ters the Strait of Fuca — Return of the Columbia to the United States. 



Having, in the preceding chapter, presented a sketch of the geo- 
graphical discoveries effected on the north-west coasts of America, 
in the interval between the time of Cook's last voyage and the year 
1790, we now proceed to relate the important events of a political 
nature, which occurred on those coasts during the latter part of the 
same period. .These events have been variously represented — or 
rather misrepresented — by the historians to whom reference is usu- 
ally made for information respecting them ; * and ample proofs will 
be here offered, that the most essential circumstances have been ex- 
hibited in false forms, and under false colors, either designedly, or 
from indifference and want of research on the part of the authors. 

The movements of the fur traders in the North Pacific were, 
from the beginning, regarded with dissatisfaction and mistrust by the 
court of Madrid. It was at first proposed to counteract them by 
monopolizing that branch of commerce ; for which object an agent 
was despatched to California, in 1786, with orders to collect all the 

* Namely, the histories of England, by Bissett, Miller, Belsham, (in which latter 
the accounts are more fair and more nearly correct than in any other,) Hughes, Wade, 
and the Pictorial History of England — Schoell's Histoire des Traites de Paix — Bren- 
ton's Naval History of Great Britain, last edition — Introduction to the Journal of 
Galiano and Valdcs — History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, by T. D. Cooley — 
GifFord's Life of William Pitt, &c. In the most recent ot these works, namely, the 
Pictorial History of England, the account is farthest from the truth; the author has 
evidently not consulted any original evidence on the subject, except, possibly, the 
Memorial of Meares, or the abstract of that paper in the Annual Register. 



17S6.J APPREHENSIONS OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT. 183 

sea otter skins * obtainable there, and carry them for sale to Canton : 
but the enterprise proved unsuccessful, as the agent could only ob- 
tain a small number of furs, of inferior quality, the produce of the 
sale of which in China did not cover the expenses of their trans- 
portation. 

Considerable uneasiness was also created at Madrid, by the en- 
deavors of the British government to advance the whale and seal 
fishery in the seas surrounding the southern extremity of America. 
A number of experienced whalers, especially from Nantucket, had 
been induced, immediately after the peace of 1783, to engage in 
this business, under the British flag ; and high premiums were 
offered by act of Parliament, in 1786, to encourage perseverance in 
the pursuit. As British vessels and subjects would thus necessa- 
rily frequent the unoccupied coasts of Patagonia and the adjacent 
islands, it was apprehended, by the Spanish government, that estab- 
lishments might be formed in those regions, for their protection ; 
the natural consequence of which would be, the introduction of 
foreign merchandise, and of opinions contrary to the interests of 
Spain, into the contiguous provinces. In order to provide against 
these evils, the Spaniards increased their garrison at Port Soledad, 
in the Falkland Islands, as well as their naval force in that quarter ; 
and an attempt was made, under the patronage of their government, 
to organize a company for the whale and seal fishery in the South- 
ern Ocean, which proved entirely abortive. 

It was from Russia, however, that the Spanish government an- 
ticipated the greatest danger to its dominions on the Pacific side of 
America. Of the commerce and establishments of that nation on 
the northernmost coasts of the Pacific, enough had been learned 
from the narrative pf Cook's expedition, and other works then re- 
cently published, to show their advancement, and the enterprise of 
those by whom they were conducted, as well as the determination 
of the Russian government to maintain and encourage them ; and 
La Perouse, during the stay of his ships at Conception, in Chili, in 
1786, promised, at the particular request of the captain-general, to 
communicate confidentially to the viceroy of Mexico the results of 
the observations on those subjects which he might make in Kanit- 
chatka and the islands and coasts of America adjacent. La Pe- 
rouse, however, did not return to America after his visit to Kamt- 
chatka, nor was any information on the points in question received 
from him by the Spanish authorities ; and the viceroy of Mexico, 

* La P6rouse — Portlock. 



184 APPREHENSIONS OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT. [1787. 

having waited in vain for the promised inteUigence until the ena of 

1787, resolved to despatch vessels to the North Pacific, in order to 
ascertain the truth with regard to the trade and settlements of the 
Russians and other foreign nations on the coasts of that division of 
the ocean. 

Before relating the particulars of the expedition made for that 
purpose, a circumstance may be mentioned, which serves to show 
the state of feeling of the Spanish government at the period in 
question, with regard to the proceedings of foreigners in the Pacific, 
and the extent of the measures which it was ready to adopt in order 
to exclude them from that ocean. It has been said, in the preced- 
ing chapter, that the ship Columbia having received some damage 
on her way from Boston to the north-west coast of America, in May, 

1788, entered a harbor in the Island of Juan Fernandez, where as- 
sistance was aflforded in refitting her by the Spanish commandant 
Don Bias Gonzales and his garrison. After her departure, the 
commandant communicated the circumstances, by a despatch, to 
his immediate superior, the captain-general of Chili, who thereupon 
recalled Gonzales from the island, and placed him in arrest, address- 
ing, at the same time, a report on the subject, with a request for 
instructions, to the viceroy of Peru. The viceroy, after consulting 
with his official legal adviser, replied to the captain-general at length 
on the subject, and expressed his surprise and displeasure at the mis- 
conduct of the commandant of Juan Fernandez, in allowing the 
strange ship to leave the harbor, instead of seizing her and her crew ; 
as he should have known that, by the royal ordinance of November, 
1692, every foreign vessel found in those seas, without a license 
from the court of Spain, was to be treated as an enemy, even though 
belonging to a friend or ally of the king, seeing that no other nation 
had, or ought to have, any territories, to reach which its vessels 
should pass around Cape Horn or through Magellan's Straits. In 
so serious a light did the viceroy regard the matter, that a ship was 
sent from Callao to track or intercept the Columbia ; the authori- 
ties on the coasts of Peru and Chili were specially enjoined to be 
vigilant, and, in case any foreign vessel should appear in the vicini- 
ty, to seize her ; and the whole aflfair was made known by a de- 
spatcli to the viceroy of Mexico, in order that similar precautions 
might be adopted on his part. The unfortunate commandant Gon- 
zales was cashiered for his remissness ; and he subsequently ad- 
dressed a petition to the government of the United States for its 
intercession with his sovereign. Thus were half of the Spanish do- 



1788.] VOYAGE OF MARTINEZ AND HARO. 185 

minions in America thrown into alarm and agitation, by the appear- 
ance of a trading ship from the United States on the Pacific : yet 
Teodor Lacroix, the viceroy of Peru, and Ambrose O'Higgins, cap- 
tain-general of Chili, were men of education and experience, distin- 
guished for their courage and sagacity ; but such was the jealous 
system which they were bound to support.* 

For the expedition of inquiry' to the north-west coasts of America, 
the viceroy of Mexico employed two vessels, the corvette Princesa, 
commanded by Estevan Martinez, (who had been the pilot in the 
voyage of Juan Perez, in 1774,) and the schooner San Carlos, under 
Lieutenant Gonzalo Haro. They were instructed to proceed direct- 
ly to Prince William's Sound, and to make every possible inquiry 
and examination respecting the establishments of the Russians there 
and in other parts of America adjacent ; having completed which, 
they were to explore the coasts southward to California, if time 
should be left for that purpose, seeking particularly for places 
convenient for the reception of Spanish colonies : and they were 
especially enjoined to treat the natives of the places which they 
might visit with kindness, and not to engage in any quarrel with the 
Russians. 

Of this voyage of Martinez and Haro, a short account will suffice. 
They quitted San Bias on the 8th of March, 1788, and, on the 
25th of May, they anchored in the entrance of Prince William's 
Sound, where they lay nearly a month, without making any attempt 
to examine the surrounding shores. At length, in the end of June, 
Haro, having sailed, in the San Carlos, along the coast of the ocean 
farther south-west, discovered a Russian establishment on the east 
side of the Island of Kodiak, under the command of a Greek, named 
Delaref, with whom he was able to communicate ; and from this 
person he received detailed accounts of all the Russian establish- 
ments in that quarter. On the 3d of July, Haro rejoined Martinez, 
who had, in the mean time, explored the coasts of Prince William's 
Sound ; and they proceeded together along the eastern side of the 



* The petition of Gonzales, with copies of his reports to the captain-general, and 
the sentence pronounced against him, remain in manuscript in the archives of the 
Department of State at Washington. Mr. Jefferson, secretary of state of the United 
States, recommended his case to the Spanish government, in a letter to Mr. Carmi- 
chacl, then plenipotentiary at Madrid, dated April 11th, 1790, with what success is 
not known. The other particulars here related of this curious affair are derived from 
the General Report, or Instructions, left by the viceroy of Peru to his successor, on 
his retirement from that office, which was published at London in 1822, in the BibHo- 
teca .Americana. 

24 



186 VOYAGE OF MARTINEZ AND HARO. [1789. 

peninsula of Aliaska, to Unalashka, the largest of the Aleutian 
Islands, where they arrived on the 30th of August. There they re- 
mained until the 18th of September, receiving every attention from 
the Russians belonging to the factory, and then sailed for the south. 
In their voyage homeward, the vessels were separated : Haro reached 
San Bias on tlie 22d of October ; Martinez did not enter that port 
until the 5th of December, having f)ut into Monterey for refresh- 
ments.* 

The geographical observations made in this expedition were of 
little value at the time ; and it would be needless to notice them 
here, as the coasts to which they relate have been since completely 
surveyed. Agreeably to the report presented by Martinez, on his 
return to the viceroy of Mexico, the Russian establishments in Amer- 
ica at that time were in number eight, all situated east of Prince 
William's Sound, on which, however, one was then in progress; 
and they contained, together, two hundred and fifty-two Russian 
subjects, nearly all of whom were natives of Kamtchatka or Sibe- 
ria. Martinez was, moreover, informed that two vessels had been 
sent in that summer from Kodi^k, to found a settlement at Nootka 
Sound, and that two large ships were in preparation at Ochotsk, for 
further operations of the same nature. The vessels sent from Ko- 
diak were doubtless those which proceeded, under IsmylofF and 
Betscharef, along the coast eastward to the foot of Mount St. Elias ; 
the others were those intended for the expedition under Billings, 
which was not begun until 1790. 

These accounts of the establishments and projects of the Rus- 
sians were immediately communicated to the court of Madrid, 
which addressed to the empress of Russia a remonstrance against 
such encroachments of her subjects upon the territories of his Cath- 
olic majesty. In the memorial conveying this remonstrance, it is to 
be remarked that Prince William'' s Sound is assumed as separating 
the dominions of the two sovereigns ; it being doubtless intended, 

* The preceding account of this voyage is derived from the journal of Martinez, 
of which a copy, in manuscript, was obtained from the hydrographical office at^ 
Madrid. 

The first notice of this expedition, published in Europe, was taken from a letter 
written at San Bias, soon after the arrival of Haro at that port, in which it was said 
that the Spaniards had found Russian establishments bchnecn the forty-ninth and 
the fiftieth degrees of latitude, instead ofheticccn the ffty-ninth and the sixtieth degrees, 
and on this error, such as is dally committed by persons ignorant of nautical matters, 
M. Poletica, the Russian envoy in the United States, endeavored, in 1822, to found a 
claim for his sovereign to the 2choJe of the American coasts and islands on the Pacific 
north of the forty-ninth parallel. See hereafter, chap. xvi. 



1789.] CLAIMS OF SPAIN EXAMINED. 18t 

by means of this geographical obscurity, to leave undefined the del- 
icate question as to the limits of Spanish America in the north- 
west. The empress of Russia answered — that orders had been 
given to her subjects not to make settlements in places belonging 
to other nations ; and, if those orders had been violated with regard 
to Spanish America, she desired the king of Spain to arrest the en- 
croachments, in a friendly manner. With this answer, more cour- 
teous than specific, the Spanisli minister professed himself content ; 
observing, however, in his reply, that Spain " could not be respon- 
sible for what her officers might do, at places so distant, whilst they 
were acting under general orders to allow no settlements to be 
made by other nations on the Spanish American continent." * 

In the mean time, however, the viceroy of Mexico, Don Manuel 
de Flores, had, in virtue of his general instructions, taken a decisive 
measure with regard to Nootka Sound. For that purpose, he de- 
spatched Martinez and Haro from San Bias, early in 1789, with their 
vessels manned and equipped eflTectively ; ordering them, in case any 
British or Russian vessel should appear at Nootka, to receive her 
with the attention and civility required by the peace and friendship 
existing between Spain and those nations, but, at the same time, 
to declare the paramount rights of his Catholic majesty to the place, 
and the adjacent coasts, firmly, though discreetly, and without using 
harsh or insulting language.f 

Before entering upon the narrative of the events which followed, 
it should be observed, with regard to the right of tlie Spanish gov- 
ernment thus to take possession of Nootka, that, before the 6th of 
May, 1789, when Martinez entered the sound with that object, no 
settlement, factory, or other establishment whatsoever, had been 
founded or attempted, nor had any jurisdiction been exercised 
by the authorities or subjects of a civilized nation, in any part of 
America bordering upon the Pacific, between Port San Francisco, 
near the 38th degree of north latitude, and Prince William's Sound, 
near the 60th. The Spaniards, the British, the Russians, and the 
French, had, indeed, landed at many places on those coasts, where 
they had displayed flags, performed ceremonies, and erected monu- 
ments, by way of taldng possession — as it was termed — of the ad- 

* Memorial addressed by the court of Spain to that of London, dated June 13th, 
1790, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the 
letter D, No. 3. 

t Abstract of these instructions to Martinez, in the Introduction to the Journal of 
Gnliano and Valdes, p. 106. 



188 RIGHTS DERIVED FROM DISCOVERY. [1789. 

jacent territories for their respective sovereigns ; but such acts are, 
and were then, generally considered as empty pageants, securing 
no real rights to those by whom, or in whose names, they were per- 
formed. Nor does it appear that any portion of the above-men- 
tioned territories had become the property of a foreigner, either by 
purchase, occupation, or any other title, which can be regarded as 
valid. It has been already said that Mr. Meares, in his Memorial, 
addressed to the British Parliament, in 1790, laid claim to certain 
tracts of land about Nootka Sound, as having been ceded to him by 
the natives of the country, in 1788 ; but it was, at the same time, 
shown that this claim was unsupported by sufficient evidence, and 
was, moreover, directly, as well as indirectly, contradicted by Mr. 
Meares himself, in his journal of the same proceedings : and other 
circumstances will be mentioned hereafter, serving to prove the 
falsehood of that person's assertions, and of his pretensions to the 
possession of any part of the American territory. 

The right of exclusive sovereignty over these extensive regions 
was claimed by Spain, in virtue of the papal concession, 1493, of 
the first discovery of their coasts by Spanish subjects, and of the 
contiguity of the territories to the' settled dominions of Spain. Of 
the validity of the title derived from the papal concession it appears 
to be needless, at the present day, to speak. That the Spaniards 
were the first discoverers of the west coasts of America, at least as 
far north as the 56th parallel of latitude, has been already shown ; 
and the fact is, and has been ever since the publication of Maurelle's 
Journal, in 1781, as indisputable as that the Portuguese discovered 
the south coasts of Africa. The extent of the rights derived from 
discovery are, however, by no means clearly defined by writers on 
public law ; and the practice of nations has been so different in dif- 
ferent cases, that it seems impossible to deduce any general rule of 
action from it. That a nation whose subjects or citizens had as- 
certained the existence of a country previously unknown, should 
have a better right than any other to make settlements in that coun- 
try, and, after such settlement, to own it, and to exercise sovereignty 
over it, is in every respect conformable with nature and justice ; but 
this principle is hable to innumerable difficulties in its application to 
particular case^. It is seldom easy to decide how far a discovery 
may have been such, in all respects, as should give this strongest 
right to settle, or to what extent of country a title of sovereignty 
may have been acquired by a particular settlement : and even where 
the novelty or priority and sufficiency of the discovery are admit- 



1789.] NEW EXPEDITION FROM MACAO. 189 

ted, the right to occupy thus derived cannot surely be regarded as 
subsisting forever, to the exclusion of all other nations ; and the 
claims of states already occupying contiguous territories are always 
to be taken into consideration. 

Agreeably to these views, it could not with justice be assumed 
that Spain, from the mere fact of tlie first discovery of the north- 
west coasts of America by her subjects, acquired the right to 
exclude all other nations from them forever ; but it would be most 
unjust to deny that her right to occupy those vacant territories, 
contiguous as they were to her settled dominions, even if they had 
not been first discovered by her subjects, was much stronger than 
that of any other nation. Thus the occupation, and even the 
exploration, of any part of the north-west coasts by another power, 
might have been reasonably considered by Spain as an unfriendly, 
if not as an offensive, act ; while she might, on the contrary, have 
extended her establishments at least as far north as the 56th parallel, 
and have claimed the exclusive right to occupy all the coasts south 
of her most northern estabhshment, without giving just cause of 
dissatisfaction to any other power. The right to occupj must be 
here distinguished from the right of sovereignty ; as no nation could 
be justified, by virtue of the former right, and without occupation 
or the performance of acts indicating an intention soon to occupy, 
in depriving others of the trade of extensive vacant sea-coasts, un- 
less upon the ground that the exercise of such trade would be 
injurious to its actual interests in those countries. 

Resuming the narrative of events in the North Pacific — It has 
been mentioned, in the preceding chapter, that Meares sailed in the 
Felice from Nootka Sound to China, in the end of September, 
1789. On reaching Macao, in December following, he learned that 
during his absence, Juan Cavallo, the Portuguese merchant, whose 
name appeared on the papers of the Felice and Iphigenia as their 
owner, had become a bankrupt. What steps were taken immediate- 
ly, in consequence of this event, is not related ; but an arrangement 
was soon after made between the anonymous merchant proprietors 
and Mr. Etches, the agent of the King George's Sound Company, 
who was then at Macao, with the ship Prince of Wales and sloop 
Princess Royal, for a union of the interests of the two parties. 
Agreeably to this arrangement, the Felice was sold, and the Prince 
of Wales returned to England ; and a sliip called the Argonaut was 
purchased, in which Colnett, a lieutenant in the British navy, previ- 
ously commanding the Princess Royal, was despatched, in April, 



190 NEW EXPEDITION PROM MACAO. [1789. 

1789, to Nootka, as captain, and agent for the proprietors on the 
American coast, accompanied by the Princess Royal, under Captain 
WiUiam Hudson. 

The management of the affairs of the association at Macao ap- 
pears to have been committed entirely to Meares, who drew up the 
instructions for Colnett. From these instructions, of which a copy 
is appended by Meares to his Memorial, it is evident that there was 
really an intention to found a permanent establishment on some 
part of the north-west coast of America, although no spot is desig- 
nated as its site, and no hint is given of any acquisition of territory 
having been already made at or near Nootka Sound. Indeed, the 
only reference to that place, in the whole paper, is contained in the 
words, " We recommend you, if possible, to form a treaty with the 
various chiefs, particularly at Nootka." Yet Meares, in his Memo- 
rial, strangely enough says, " Mr. Colnett was directed to fix his 
residence at Nootka Sound, and, with that view, to erect a substan- 
tial house on the spot which your memorialist had purchased in the 
preceding year, as will appear by a copy of his instructions hereunto 
annexed.'" The Argonaut and Princess Royal were, moreover, 
certainly navigated under the British flag ; there being no object in 
using any other, as they were both provided with licenses from the 
East India and the South Sea Companies, which afforded them the 
requisite authorization.* 

Whilst these vessels were on their way to Nootka Sound, their 
first place of destination on the coast, the brig Iphigenia, and 
schooner North- West America, belonging to the same association, 
though under Portuguese colors, arrived in that bay from the 
Sandwich Islands, where they had passed the winter, agreeably to 
the instructions of Mr. Meares. They entered the sound on the 
20th of April, in the most wretched condition imaginable. The 
Iphigenia was a mere wreck ; according to the journal of Douglas, 
her supercargo or captain, annexed to the Memorial of Meares, 

* The following account of the occurrences at Nootka in the summer of 1789 is 
taken from — the journal or narrative of the voyage of Meares, and tlie documents 
attached to it, consisting of his Memorial to Parliament, and papers in proof, among 
which is especially worthy of notice the journal of Douglas, the captain or supercargo 
of the Iphigenia — the journal of Colnett's voyage, in 1793, in which some of those 
circumstances are related in a note, at page 96 — the journal of Vancouver's voyage 
in 1792 — the letter addressed by the American Captains Gray and Ingraham to the 
Spanish commandant at Nootka, in 1792, which will be found at length among the 
Proofs and Illustrations, at the end of this volume, under the letter C — and the 
memorials and other papers relative to the dispute which ensued between Great 
Britain, in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D. 



1789.] SEIZURE OF THE IPfllGENIA. 191 

" she had like to have foundered at sea, for want of pitch and tar 
to stop the leaks ; she had no bread on board, and nothing but salt 
pork for her crew to live on ; she was without cables," and, on 
attempting to moor her in the harbor, it was necessary to " borrow 
a fall from the American sloop Washington," which, with the ship 
Columbia, was found lying there. The North- West America was 
in no better condition ; and, as they had no articles for barter with 
the natives, they must have remained inactive for some time, had 
they not procured some assistance and supplies from the American 
vessels, by means of which the schooner was enabled to leave the 
sound on the 28th of the month, for a short trading trip along the 
coasts. The Washington, about the same time, also departed on a 
similar expedition ; and the Iphigenia, lying at Friendly Cove, and 
the Columbia, at Mawhinna, a few miles higher up, were the only 
vessels in Nootka Sound on the 6th of May, when the Spanish 
commander Martinez arrived there in the corvette Princesa, to take 
possession of the country for his sovereign. 

Martinez immediately communicated his intentions to the captains 
of the other vessels, whose papers he also examined ; and, appear- 
ing to be content, he landed materials and artillery, and began to 
erect a fort on a small island at the entrance of Friendly Cove. 
With this assumption of authority on his part, no dissatisfaction 
appears to have been expressed or entertained by either of the other 
parties ; on the contrary, the utmost good feeling for some time 
prevailed on all sides : the officers of the difierent vessels visited 
and dined with each other, and Martinez readily supplied the 
Iphigenia with articles of which she was in need, in order to go to 
sea immediately, accepting, in return for them, bills drawn by her 
Portuguese captain, Viana, upon Juan Cavallo, the Portuguese 
merchant of Macao, as her owner. 

Things remained thus at Nootka for a week, at the end of which 
time the other Spanish vessel, the San Carlos, arrived, under 
Captain Haro. On the following day, the 15th of May, Martinez 
invited Viana and Douglas to come on board his ship ; and, on 
their doing so, he immediately told them that they were prisoners, 
and their vessel was to be seized. " I inquired," says Douglas, in 
his journal, '' the cause of his not taking the Washington sloop, as he 
had orders from the king of Spain to take every vessel he met out 
on this coast. He gave me no satisfactory answer, but told me my 
papers were bad ; that they mentioned I was to take all English, 
Russian, and Spanish vessels that were of inferior force to the 



192 THE IPHIGENIA RELEASED BY MARTINEZ. [1789. 

Iphigenia, and send or carry their crews to Macao, there to be tried 
for their lives as pirates. I told him they had not interpreted the 
papers right ; that, though I did not understand the Portuguese, I 
had seen a copy of them in English, at Macao, which mentioned, if 
I was attacked by any one of those nations, to defend myself, and, 
if I had the superiority, to send the captains and crews to Macao, 
to answer for the insult they had offered." Martinez, however, 
was not, or did not choose to be, content with this explanation, 
which certainly did not place the Iphigenia and her owners in a 
position conformable with the usages of civilized nations ; and, in 
obedience to his orders, that brig was boarded by the Spaniards, her 
men, with her charts, papers, and instruments, were transferred to 
the ships of war, and preparations were begun for sending her, as a 
prize, to San Bias. 

Whilst these preparations were in progress, the Spanish com- 
mandant altered his intentions, and proposed to release the Iphigenia 
and her crew, on condition that her officers would sign a declaration 
to the effect that she had not been interrupted, but had been kindly 
treated and supplied by him during her stay at Nootka. This 
proposition was at first refused ; an arrangement was, however, 
afterwards made between the parties, in consequence of which the 
declaration was signed by the officers of the Iphigenia, and she and 
her crew were liberated on the 26th of May. Messrs. Viana and 
Douglas at the same time engaged for themselves, as " captain and 
supercargo respectively, and for Juan Cavallo, of Macao, as owner 
of the said vessel,'^ to pay her value, on demand, to the order of the 
viceroy of Mexico, in case he should pronounce her capture legal. 

This seizure of the Iphigenia by Martinez can scarcely be con- 
sidered unjust or unmerited, when it is recollected that, if, in 
attempting to enforce, with regard to her, the orders of his govern- 
ment, — which were perfectly conformable with the principles of 
national law as then recognized, and with treaties between Spain 
and the other powers, — he had been resisted and overcome, he, 
with his officers and men, would have been carried to Macao as 
prisoners, to be tried in Portuguese courts for piracy. Moreover, 
he had been informed that Meares was daily expected to arrive at 
Nootka, with other vessels belonging to the same concern ; and it 
was his duty to provide against the probability of being overpowered 
or insulted, by lessening the forces of those from whom he had 
every reason to apprehend an attack. He was, indeed, specially 
enjoined, by the viceroy of Mexico, to treat English and Russian 



1789.] THE IPHIGENIA RETURNS TO CHINA. 193 

vessels with respect ; but the contingency of his meeting with a 
Portuguese vessel at Nootka, furnished with such instructions as 
those carried by the Iphigenia, could not have been foreseen ; and 
the only grounds upon which he could have excused himself to his 
government for releasing her, even under the pledge given by 
her officers, must have been, that, at the time when those instruc- 
tions were written, it was not anticipated, by her proprietors, that 
Spain would take possession of any place on the north-west coast 
of America. 

That the detention of the Iphigenia by the Spaniards was not 
injurious to the interests of her owners, is clearly proved. The 
distressed condition in which she reached Nootka has been already 
shown from the accounts of her officers ; and she must have 
remained at that place, unemployed, during the greater and better 
part of the trading season, had she not been refitted and supplied 
as she was by the Spaniards. According to the narrative of Meares, 
she sailed from the sound on the 1st of June, to the coasts of Queen 
Charlotte's Island, where she collected a number of valuable furs 
in a few weeks : the trade was " so brisk," writes Meares, " (hat 
all the stock of iron was soon expended, and they were under the 
necessity of cutting up the chain plates and hatch-bars of the vessel,^' 
in order to find the means of purchasing the skins offered ; thence 
she departed for the Sandwich Islands, and, after a short stay there, 
continued her voyage to Macao, where she arrived in October, with 
about seven hundred sea otter skins, all collected since leaving Nootka 
Sound. Mr. Meares, in his Memorial, however, presents a very 
different picture of these circumstances : he there says, " During 
the time the Spaniards held possession of the Iphigenia, she was 
stripped of all the merchandise which had been prepared for trading, 
as also of her stores, provisions, nautical instruments, charts, &.c., 
and, in short, of every article, except twelve bars of iron, which they 
could conveniently carry away, 'even to the extent of the master's 
watch, and articles of clothing ; " he then goes on to state that, 
" on leaving Nootka Sound, the Iphigenia, though in a very unfit 
condition for such a voyage, proceeded from thence to the Sandwich 
Islands, and, after obtaining there such supplies as they were 
enabled to purchase tvith the iron before mentioned, returned to 
China, and anchored there in the month of October, 1789" — thus 
omitting all notice of the trip to the northern coasts, and of the 
brisk trade with the natives, in which the whole stock of iron 
25 



194 SEIZURE OF THE NORTH-WEST AMERICA. [1789. 

(including, of course, the twelve bars before mentioned) was ex- 
changed for furs. 

Before taking leave of the Iphigenia, it may be added, in evi- 
dence of her true character, that Douglas quitted her immediately 
on her arrival in China ; after which she continued to trade under 
the command of Viana, and under the flag of Portugal. 

On the 8th of June, after the departure of the Iphigenia, the 
schooner North- West America returned from her voyage along the 
southern coasts, in which she had collected about two hundred sea 
otter skins, and was immediately seized by Martinez, in consequence, 
as he at first said, of an agreement to that effect between himself 
and the captain of the Iphigenia. This agreement is expressly de- 
nied by Douglas, who declares that both promises and threats had 
been used in vain to induce him to sell the small vessel at a price 
far below her real value ; and, in proof, he cites a letter given by 
him to Martinez, addressed to the captain of the North- West Amer- 
ica, in which he merely tells the latter to act as he may think best 
for the interest of the owners. Meares, in his Memorial, however, 
admits that the letter did not contain what Martinez understood to be 
its purport when he received it, and that advantage had been taken 
by Douglas of the Spaniard's ignorance of the English language ; 
from which circumstances it is most probable that the agreement, 
whether voluntary on the part of the captain of the Iphigenia, or 
unjustly extorted from him, was actually made as asserted by Marti- 
nez. A few days afterwards, the sloop Princess Royal, one of the 
vessels sent from Macao by the associated companies, entered the 
sound under the command of William Hudson, bringing infor- 
mation of the failure of Cavallo, the Portuguese merchant, upon 
whom, as owner of the Iphigenia, the bills in payment for the sup- 
plies furnished to that vessel, were drawn. Upon learning this, 
Martinez announced his determination to hold the North-West 
America in satisfaction for the amount of those bills : she was 
thereupon immediately equipped for a trading voyage, and sent out 
under the command of one of the mates of the Columbia ; but her 
officers and men were at the same time liberated, and nearly all the 
skins collected by her were placed on board the Princess Royal, for 
the benefit of the owners in China. 

The Princess Royal remained at Nootka until the 2d of July, 
during which period she was undisturbed, and her officers and 
men were treated with perfect civility and respect by the Span- 



1789.] SEIZURE OF THE ARGONAUT AT NOOTKA. 195 

iards. As she was leaving the sound on that day, her consort, the 
ship Argonaut, came in from Macao, under Captain Colnett, who, as 
already mentioned, had been charged by the associated companies 
with the direction of their affairs on the American coasts, and the 
establishment of a factory and fort for their benefit. What followed 
with regard to this ship has been represented under various colors j 
but the principal facts, as generally admitted, were these : — 

As soon as the Argonaut appeared at the entrance of the sound, 
she was boarded by Martinez, who presented to Colnett a letter 
from the captain of the Princess Royal, and pressed him earnestly 
to enter the sound, and supply the Spanish vessels with some arti- 
cles of which they were much in want. Several of the officers of 
the North- West America and the Columbia also came on board the 
Argonaut, and communicated what had occurred respecting the 
Iphigenia and the small vessel to Colnett, who, in consequence, hes- 
itated as to entering the sound ; but he was finally induced, by the 
assurances of Martinez, to do so, and before midnight his ship 
was anchored in Friendly Cove, between the Princesa and the San 
Carlos. 

On the following day, Colnett, having supplied the Spanish ships 
with some articles, was preparing, as he states, to leave the sound, 
when he received an invitation to go on board the commandant's 
ship and exhibit his papers. He accordingly went, in uniform, and 
with his sword by his side, into the cabin of the Princesa, where he 
displayed his papers, and informed Martinez of his intention to take 
possession of Nootka, and erect a fort there under the British flag. 
The commandant replied, that this could not be done, as the place 
was already occupied by the forces and in the name of his Catholic 
majesty ; and an altercation ensued, the results of which were the 
arrest and confinement of Colnett, and the seizure of the Argonaut 
by the Spaniards. From the moment of Iiis arrest, Colnett became 
insane or delirious, and continued in this state for several weeks, 
during which Duffin, the mate of his vessel, acted as the representa- 
tive of the proprietors : in the mean time, her cargo had been all 
placed on board the Spanish ships of war ; and, on the 13th of 
July, she sailed, with her officers and nearly the whole of her crew as 
prisoners, under the command of a Spanish lieutenant, for San Bias. 

If the accounts of these transactions, presented by Meares in his 
Memorial, and by Colnett in the narrative which he afterwards 
published, be admitted as conveying a full and correct view of the 



196 SEIZURE OF THE ARGONAUT AT NOOTKA. [1789, 

circumstances, the conduct of Martinez must be considered as nearly 
equivalent to piracy. From these accounts it would appear that the 
ship was treacherously seized, without any reasonable ground, or 
even pretext, and with the sole premeditated object of plundering 
her; and that the most cruel acts of violence, insult, and restraint, 
were wantonly committed upon the officers and men during the 
whole period of their imprisonment. Colnett relates * — that, when 
he presented his papers to Martinez in the cabin of the Princesa, 
the commandant, without examining them, pronounced them to be 
forged, and immediately declared that the Argonaut should not go 
to sea — that, upon his " remonstrating [in what terms he does not 
say] against this breach of good faith, and forgetfulness of ivord 
and honor pledged," the Spaniard rose, in apparent anger, and 
introduced a party of armed men, by whom he was struck down, 
placed in the stocks, and then closely confined — that he was after- 
wards carried from ship to ship like a criminal, threatened witli 
instant execution as a pirate, and subjected to so many injuries and 
indignities as to throw him into a violent fever and delirium, which 
were near proving fatal — and that his officers and men were impris- 
oned and kept in irons from the time of their seizure until their 
arrival at San Bias, where many of them died in consequence of ill 
treatment. Meares, in his Memorial, makes the same assertions, 
many of which are supported by the deposition of the officers and 
seamen of the North-West America, taken in China, and appended 
to the Memorial. On the other hand. Gray, the captain of the 
Washington, and Ingraham, the mate of the Columbia, both of 
whom were at Nootka during the occurrence of the aflair, '' were 
informed by those whose veracity they had no reason to doubt," f 
that Colnett, in his interview with Martinez on board the Princesa, 
denied the right of the Spaniards to occupy Nootka, and endeav- 
ored to impose upon the Spanish commandant, by representing 
himself as acting under direct orders from the British government ; 
and that he afterwards insulted the Spaniard by threatening him 
and drawing his sword. Colnett himself says that he attempted to 
draw his sword on the occasion, but that it was in defence against 
those who assailed him ; and it must be allowed to be very difficult to 
^^remonstrate" with a man upon ^' his breach of faith, and forgetful- 

* Account of his Voyage in the Pacific in ]793, note at p. 96; also Vancouver's 
Journal, vol. iii. p. 492. These two accounts differ in some points. 

t Letter of Gray and Ingraham, in the Proofs and Illustrations, letter C. 



1789.] SEIZURE OP THE ARGONAUT. 1^ 

ness of his 7vord and honor pledged" without insulting him. Duffin, 
the mate of the Argonaut, writing to Meares from Nootka, ten clays 
after the seizure of the ship, gives nearly the same account of the 
interview, adding that the misunderstanding was probably occa- 
sioned by the interpreter's ignorance of the English language : he 
says that Martinez appeared to be very sorry for what had hap- 
pened, and had " behaved with great civility, by obliging his pris- 
oners with every liberty that could be expected ; " and he com- 
plains of no violence, either to the feelings or to the persons of any 
of the crews of the vessels seized, although he charges the Span- 
iards with plundering both openly and secretly. Moreover, Duffin 
declares, and Meares repeats, in his Memorial, that the disease with 
which Colnett was afflicted after his arrest was a fit of insanity, oc- 
casioned by fear and disappointment operating upon a mind natu- 
rally weak and hereditarily predisposed to such alienation. 

On the part of Spain, the only statements which have been pub- 
licly made are those contained in the notes and memorials ad- 
dressed by the court of Madrid to other governments in 1790; and 
in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes — all of 
which, though officially presented, are nevertheless imperfect and 
evidently erroneous on several important points.* 

Upon reviewing the circumstances of the affair, there appears 
to be no reason to doubt that Colnett entered the sound, relying on 
the assurances of Martinez, that he should be undisturbed while 

^ These notes and memorials, which will be mentioned more particularly hereafter, 
may be found in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D. All that is said 
in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes respecting the dispute, or 
the circumstances which led to it, is contained in the paragraph of which the 
following is a translation : — 

" On the 2d of July, the English ship Argonaut, which had been sent by an Eng- 
lish company from Macao, entered the port. Her captain, James Colnett, came, with 
authority from the king of England, to take possession of the port of Nootka, to for- 
tify it, and to establish there a factory for the collection of sea otter skins, and to 
prevent other nations from engaging in this trade, with which objects he was to build 
a large ship and a schooner. This manifest infraction of the rights over that region 
led to a serious quarrel between the Spanish commandant and the English captain, 
which extended to Europe ; and, the two powers being alarmed, the world was for 
some time threatened with war and devastation, the results of discord. Captain Col- 
nett refused, repeatedly and obstinately, to exhibit to Martinez the instructions which 
he brought; and he expressed himself in language so indecorous and irritating, that 
our commandant, having exhausted all the measures of prudence which he had hith- 
erto employed, resolved to arrest the British captain in the cabin of his ship, and to 
declare all the persons on board the Argonaut prisoners of war, and to send them to 
San Bias, to be there placed at the disposition of the viceroy of Mexico." 



198 SEIZURE OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL. [1789. 

there, and be allowed to depart at his pleasure ; and it seems to be 
equally certain that the English captain did afterwards conduct 
himself with so much violence and extravagance towards the Span- 
ish commandant, as to render his own arrest perfectly justifiable. 
The seizure of the Argonaut, the imprisonment of her other officers 
and crew, and the spoliation of her cargo, cannot, however, be 
defended on those or on any grounds afforded by the evidence of any 
of the parties ; for Martinez had no reason to apprehend an attack 
from the Argonaut, and he had been specially instructed, by his 
immediate superior, the viceroy of Mexico, to suspend, with regard 
to British vessels on the north-west coasts, the execution of the 
general orders to Spanish commandants, for the seizure of foreign 
vessels entering the ports of the American dominions. 

Still less excusable was the conduct of Martinez towards the sloop 
Princess Royal, on her second arrival at Nootka. She appeared at 
the entrance of the sound on the 13th of July, having made a short 
trading cruise along the northern coasts ; and her captain, Hudson, 
on coming up to Friendly Cove in a boat, was arrested, after which 
his vessel was boarded and brought in as a prize by a party of 
Spaniards despatched for the purpose. On the following day, the 
majority of her crew were transferred to the Argonaut, which 
carried them as prisoners to San Bias ; her cargo was then taken 
out, and she was herself afterwards employed for nearly two years 
in the Spanish service, under Lieutenant Q,uimper. 

The schooner North- West America was also retained in the 
national service of Spain ; her officers and men, with some of 
those of the Argonaut and Princess Royal, were, however, placed 
on board the American ship Columbia, to be carried as passengers 
to China, one hundred of the sea otter skins found in the Princess 
Royal being allowed in payment of their wages and transportation. 
Martinez remained at Nootka until November, when he departed, 
with his three vessels, for San Bias, agreeably to orders received by 
him from Mexico. 

The Columbia had remained in the sound ever since her first 
arrival there, in October, 1788; the Washington being, in the mean 
time, engaged in trading along the coasts north and south of that 
place, to which she, however, frequently returned, in order to 
deposit the furs collected. The officers of these vessels were thus 
witnesses of nearly all the occurrences at Nootka during the summer 
of 1789, in which, indeed, they frequently took part as mediators ; 



1789.] CONDUCT OF THE AMERICANS AT NOOTKA. 199 

and the only evidence, with regard to those events, except the 
journal of Douglas, which can bear the test of strict examination, is 
contained in a letter addressed, three years afterwards, to the 
Spanish commandant of Nootka, by Gray, the captain of the 
Washington, and Ingraham, the mate of the Columbia.* Meares 
and Colnett endeavor to cast blame on the Americans for their 
conduct in these proceedings ; their complaints, however, on exam- 
ination, seem to rest entirely on the fact that the Washington and 
Columbia were undisturbed, while their own vessels were seized by 
the Spaniards. That Gray and Kendrick profited by the quarrels 
between the other two parties is probable, and no one can question 
their right to do so ; but no evidence has been adduced that they, on 
any occasion, took an unfair advantage of cither : though it is also 
probable tiiat their feelings were rather in favor of the Spaniards, 
by whom they were always treated with courtesy and kindness, 
than of the British, to whom, if we are to judge by the expressions 
of Meares and Colnett, they were, from the commencement, the 
objects of hatred and ridicule. 

In one of the above-mentioned trading excursions of the Wash- 
ington, made in June, 1789, Gray explored the whole east coast of 
Q,ueen Charlotte's Island, which had never before been visited by 
the people of any civilized nation, though Duncan, in the Princess 
Royal, had, in the preceding year, sailed through the sea separating 
it from the main land and other islands. The American, being 
ignorant of this fact, as also of the name bestowed on the territory 
by Dixon, called it Washington's Island; and thus it was, for a 
long period, always distinguished by the fur traders of the United 
States. Meares endeavors, in his narrative, to secure to Douglas, 
the captain of the Iphigenia, the merit of having first established 
the insulation of the territory ; though Douglas, in his journal 
annexed to that narrative, expressly alludes to the previous visits 
of the Washington to many places on the east coast. The assertion 
of this claim for Douglas was one of the causes of the dispute 
between Meares and Dixon, in 1791, which will be hereafter men- 
tioned more particularly. 

In a subsequent excursion from Nootka, Gray entered the opening 
south-east of that place, between the 48th and 49th parallels of 
latitude, which had been found by Berkely in 1787, and was sup- 
posed to be the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Through 

* See Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D. 



200 RELEASE OF COLNETT. [1789. 

this opening Gray sailed, as he informed Vancouver in 1792, " fifty 
miles in an east-south-east direction, and found the passage five 
leagues wide." He then returned to the Pacific, and, on his way 
to Nootka, he met the Columbia, which had just quitted the sound, 
with the crew of the North- West America on board as passengers, 
for China ; and it was agreed between the two captains that 
Kendrick should take command of the sloop, and remain on the 
coast, while Gray, in the Columbia, should carry to Canton all the 
furs which had been collected by both vessels. This was according- 
ly done ; and Gray arrived, on the 6th of December, at Canton, 
where he sold his furs, and took in a cargo of tea, with which he 
entered Boston on the 10th of August, 1790, having carried the flag 
of the United States for the first time around the world. Kendrick, 
immediately on parting with the Columbia, proceeded in the 
Washington to the Strait of Fuca, through which he passed, in its 
whole length, as will be hereafter more fully shown. 

The Argonaut, with Colnett and his men on board as prisoners, 
arrived, on the 16th of August, at San Bias, near which place they 
were kept prisoners until the arrival of the commandant of that 
department, Captain Bodega y Cluadra, by whom Colnett was 
treated with great kindness, and soon after sent to the city of 
Mexico. There he remained several months, during which the 
examination of the cases of the seized vessels was in progress ; and 
it was at length decided — that, although Martinez had acted con- 
formably with the general laws and regulations of Spain, forbidding 
all aliens from resorting to the Spanish American coasts, and the 
vessels might therefore be retained as lawful prizes, yet, in con- 
sideration of the apparent ignorance of their officers and owners 
with regard to the laws and rights of Spain, as also for the sake of 
peace with England, they should be released, with the understand- 
ing, however, that they were not again to enter any place on the 
Spanish American coasts, either for the purpose of settlement or 
of trade with the natives. In virtue of this decision, Colnett 
returned to San Bias, where he learned that several of his men had 
died of the fever endemic at that place, and his ship was much 
injured by the service to which she had been subjected ; she was, 
nevertheless, refitted, and, with the remainder of her crew, he 
sailed in her for Nootka, to receive possession of the Princess 
Royal, for which he had an order. On arriving at the sound, 
Colnett found the place deserted ; and, not knowing where to seek 



1790.] THE PRINCESS ROYAL RESTORED. 201 

the sloop, he sailed for Macao, which he reached in the latter part 
of 1790. Thence he went, in the following year, to the Sandwich 
Islands, where the Princess Royal was restored to him, in March, 
by Lieutenant Q,uimper, the Spanisn officer under whose command 
she had been employed for nearly two years. 

The political discussions between the governments of Great 
Britain and Spain, which had meanwhile taken place, in con- 
sequence of the seizures at Nootka, will be related in the en- 
suing chapter. 

26 



202 



CHAPTER IX. 

1790. 

Controversy between Great Britain and Spain respecting the Norm- West Coasts of 
America and tlie Navigation of the Pacific — The Owners of the Vessels seized 
at Nootka apply for Redress to the British Government, which demands Satis- 
faction for the alleged Outrages — Spain resists the Demand, and calls on France 
for Aid, agreeably to the Family Compact — Proceedings in the National Assembly 
of France on the Subject — Spain engages to indemnify the British for the 
Property seized — Further Demands of Great Britain — Designs of Pitt against 
Spanish America — Secret Mediation of France, through which the Dispute is 
settled — Convention of October, 1790, called the Nootka Treaty — Proceedings 
in Parliament, and Reflections on this Convention. 

The Columbia arrived at Macao from Nootka in December, 
1789, bringing as passengers the officers and crew of the North- 
West America, who communicated the news of the capture of that 
vessel, and of the Argonaut and Princess Royal, by the Spaniards. 
The owners immediately determined to apply to the British govern- 
ment for redress ; and Meares was accordingly despatched to Lon- 
don, where he arrived in April, 1790, provided with depositions, 
and other documents, in substantiation of their claims. While he 
was on his way, however, the circumstances on which his applica- 
tion was to be founded had already become the subject of a serious 
discussion between the courts of London and Madrid. 

On the 10th of February, 1790, the Spanish ambassador at 
London presented to the British ministry a note, in which, after 
communicating the fact of the seizure of a British vessel (the 
Argonaut) at Nootka, he required, in the name of his government, 
that the parties who had planned the expedition should be punished, 
in order to deter other persons from making settlements on territo- 
ries long occupied and frequented by the Spaniards ; and he at the 
same time complained of the trade and fishery, by British subjects, 
in the seas adjoining the Spanish American continent on the west, 
as contrary to the rights of Spain, guarantied by Great Britain in 
the treaty of Utrecht, and respected by all European nations. To 
this the British ministers answered, on the 26th, that, although they 
had not received exact information as to the facts stated by the 



1790.] DISCUSSIONS IN LONDON. 203 

ambassador, yet the act of violence against British subjects described 
in his note necessarily suspended all discussion of the claims ad- 
vanced by him, until adequate atonement should have been made 
for the outrage. In the mean time, they demanded the immediate 
restoration of the vessel seized, reserving further proceedings on the 
subject until more complete details of the circumstances could be 
obtained. 

This unexpected answer, with other circumstances, induced the 
Spanish cabinet to suspect that more was meant than had been 
openly declared by Great Britain ; that this power was, in fact, only 
seeking an occasion to break the peace with Spain for some ulte- 
rior object : and, under the influence of this suspicion, preparations 
for war were commenced in all the naval arsenals of the latter king- 
dom. The king of Spain being, however, anxious to prevent a 
rupture, if possible, his ambassador at London addressed another 
note to the British government in April, declaring that, although 
the Spanish crown had an indubitable right to the continent, islands, 
harbors, and coasts, of America on the Pacific, founded upon trea- 
ties and immemorial possession, yet, as the viceroy of Mexico had 
released the vessel seized at Nootka, his Catholic majesty regarded 
the afl'fiir as concluded, without entering into any disputes and dis- 
cussions on the undoubted rights of Spain ; and, desiring to give a 
proof of his friendship for Great Britain, he should rest satisfied, if 
her subjects were commanded to respect those rights in future. 

This last communication was received about the time when 
Meares arrived in London from China ; and the information brought 
by him was not calculated to render the British government inclined 
to accept the pacific overture of Spain. On the contrary, orders 
were issued for arming two large fleets, and the whole affair, which 
had been previously kept secret, was submitted to Parliament by a 
message from the king on the 5th of May. 

In this message, his majesty states that two vessels, belonging to 
his subjects, and navigated under the British flag, and two others, 
of which the description was not then sufficiently ascertained, had 
been captured at Nootka Sound, by an officer commanding two 
Spanish ships of war ; the cargoes of the two British vessels had 
been seized, and their crews had been sent as prisoners to a Span- 
ish port ; — that, as soon as he had been informed of the capture 
of one of these vessels, he had ordered a demand to be made for 
her restitution, and for adequate satisfaction, previous to any other 
discussion ; from the answer to which demand, it appeared that the 



204 THE KING OF ENGLAND's MESSAGE. [1790. 

vessel and her crew had been liberated by the viceroy of Mexico, 
on the supposition, however, that ignorance of the rights of Spain 
alone induced individuals of other nations to frequent those coasts, 
for the purposes of trade and settlement ; — but that no satisfaction 
was made or offered by Spain, and a direct claim was asserted by 
her government to the exclusive rights of sovereignty, navigation, 
and commerce, in the territories, coasts, and seas, of that part of the 
world. In consequence of all which, his majesty had directed his 
minister at Madrid to make a fresh representation on the subject, 
and to claim such full and adequate satisfaction as the nature of the 
case evidently required. Having, moreover, been informed that 
considerable armaments were in progress in the ports of Spain, he 
had judged it indispensable to make preparations for acting with 
vigor and effect in support of the honor of his crown, and the inter- 
ests of his people ; and he recommended that Parliament should 
enable him to take such other measures, and to make such aug- 
mentations of his forces, as might be eventually requisite for this 
purpose.* 

The recommendations in this message were received with every 
mark of concurrence in Parliament and throughout the kingdom ; 
the supplies were immediately voted, and the preparations for war 
were continued with unexampled activity. On the day in which 
the message was sent, a note was addressed to the Spanish ambas- 
sador at London, containing a reiteration of the demands previously 
made, and of the declaration that, until those demands should have 
been satisfied, the question of the rights of Spain would not be dis- 
cussed. " His majesty," says the note, " will take the most effectual 
pacific measures to prevent his subjects from trespassing on the just 
and acknowledged rights of Spain : but he cannot accede to the 
pretensions of absolute sovereignty, commerce, and navigation, 
which appeared to be the principal objects of the last note from 
the Spanish ambassador ; and he considers it his duty to protect his 
subjects in the enjoyment of the right of fishery in the Pacific 
Ocean." The British Charge d'affaires at Madrid also presented, in 
the name of his government, formal demands for the restitution of 
the other vessel [the Princess Royal] and cargo seized at Nootka, 
and for reparation of the losses and injtiries sustained by the British 
subjects trading in the North Pacific under the British flag ; asserting, 

* This mcssagp, and all the other official documents relative to the discussion 
which have been published, will be found in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the 
letter D. 



1790.] DEMANDS OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 205 

at the same time, as a principle which would be maintained by his 
government, that " British subjects have an indisputable right to the 
enjoyment of a free and uninterrupted navigation, commerce, and fsh- 
ery, and to the possession of such establishments as they should form, 
with the consent of the natives of the country, not previously occu- 
pied by any of the European nations." 

To these formal exactions of the British government, the court of 
Madrid replied, at first indirectly, by a circular letter addressed, on 
the 4th of June, to all the other courts of Europe. This letter was 
couched in the most conciliatory language : it contained a recapitu- 
lation of the circumstances of the dispute, according to the views 
of Spain ; denying all intention, on her part, to commit or defend 
any act of injustice against Great Britain, or to claim any rights 
which did not rest upon irrefragable titles ; insisting that the cap- 
ture of the British vessel had been repaired by the conduct of the 
viceroy of Mexico in immediately restoring her ; and declaring the 
readiness of his Catholic majesty to satisfy any demands which 
should prove to be well founded, after an investigativ n of the ques- 
tion of right between the two crowns. This reply not being con- 
sidered sufficient by the British ambassador, a Memorial was deliv- 
ered to him, on the 13th of the same month, by count de Florida 
Blanca, the Spanish minister of state, not differing essentially in its 
import from the circular letter ; which, however, served only to 
render the ambassador still more urgent for a specific answer to the 
demands of his government. At length, after repeated conferences, 
the Spanish minister, on the 18th, officially signified that his sove- 
reign, having approved the restitution of all the vessels and their car- 
goes seized at Nootka, was willing to indemnify the owners for their 
losses, and also to make satisfaction for the insult to the dignity of 
the British crown ; provided, that the extent of the insult and of the 
satisfaction should be settled, in form and substance, either by one 
of the kings of Europe, to be selected by his Britannic majesty, or 
by a negotiation between the two governments, in which no facts 
were to be admitted as true, except such as were fully established ; 
and that no inference affecting the rights of Spain should be drawn 
from the act of giving satisfaction. 

This offer of reparation was accepted by the court of London ; 
and, on the 24th of July, count de Florida Blanca presented to 
Mr. Fitzherbert, the British ambassador at Madrid, a Declaration, 
m the name of his sovereign, to the effect — that he would restore 
the vessels and indemnify the owners for their losses, so soon as the 



206 DECLARATION OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT. [1790. 

amount should have been ascertained, and would give satisfaction 
to his Britannic majesty for the injury of which he had complained ; 
and this Declaration, together with the performance of the engage- 
ments made in it, was admitted by the ambassador in his Counter 
Declaration,* as full and entire satisfaction for those injuries : it be- 
ing, however, at the same time admitted and expressed on both 
sides, that the Spanish "Declaration was not to preclude or preju- 
dice the ulterior discussion of any right which his Catholic majesty 
might claim to form an exclusive estabhshment at Nootka Sound." 
The affair had thus far proceeded, nearly in the same course as 
that respecting the Falkland Islands, twenty years previous ; and 
the government of Madrid probably supposed that it would have 
been terminated in the same manner. But Mr. Pitt, then in the 
fulness of his power in England, had other objects in view. The 
revolution in France was then advancing with a rapidity terrible to 
all who desired to maintain the existing state of things in Europe ; 
and anti-monarchical doctrines and feelings were pervading every 
part of that continent, and even of the British Islands. Pitt clearly 
foresaw the storm which afterwards came on, and determined 
to prepare for it, by arming at home, and by leading or forcing 
other nations to accede to his plans. He accordingly formed alli- 
ances with Holland and Sweden : for Spain he had inherited all 
his father's hatred and contempt; and, considering her long and 
close connection with France, he resolved to bend and bind her to 
his views by the strong hand. He had already, in an inconceivably 
short space of time, assembled a mighty armament, which he in- 
tended, in the event of a war, to direct against the Spanish posses- 
sions in America, for the purpose of wresting them from their actual 
rulers, either by conquest or by internal revolution ; f and, having 
assumed this position, he did not hesitate to require from Spain the 
surrender of many of the exclusive pretensions with regard to nav- 
igation, commerce, and territorial sovereignty, upon which her do- 
minion in the western continent was supposed, with reason, to 

* The Declaration and Counter Declaration may be found among the documents 
connected with the discussion, in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D, No. 7. 

t Mr. Pitt's scheme for detaching from Spain her transatlantic dominions is be- 
lieved, with reason, to have been suggested to him by Francisco Miranda, a native 
of Caraccas, through whose agency a number of exiles and fugitives from those 
countries, including many of the expelled Jesuits, were engaged in the plan, and cor- 
respondences were commenced with the principal persons inclined to a separation 
from Spain in all parts of her American territories. On this subject, many curious 
particulars may be found in the Edinburgh Review for January, 1809. The subse- 
quent history, and the melancholy fate, of Miranda are well known. 



1790.] FURTHER NEGOTIATION AT MADRID. 207 

depend. The negotiation on the subject of these demands was 
continued at Madrid for three months after the acceptance of the 
Spanish Declaration ; during which period couriers were constantly 
flying between that city and London, and the whole civilized world 
was kept in suspense and anxiety as to the result. 

The British plenipotentiary at Madrid, Mr. Fitzherbert, began by 
requiring from Spain a distinct admission of the right of his coun- 
trymen to navigate and fish in any part of the Pacific, and to trade 
and settle on any of its unoccupied American coasts ; in reply to 
which, the Spanish minister, Count de Florida Blanca, proposed to 
admit the rights of fishery, trade, and settlement, with regard to the 
open sea, and to coasts north of the 51st parallel of latitude, on 
condition that the British should never penetrate more than twenty 
leagues into the interior, from those coasts, and to allow the privi- 
lege of fishing about the southern extremity of the continent, but 
not of settling there, leaving to Spain the right to destroy any such 
establishments, "as is practised in the Falkland Islands."* Mr. 
Fitzherbert rejected this proposition, and insisted that certain lines 
of boundary should be drawn from the coasts, through the interior 
of the continents, in the north and in the south, between which 
British subjects should form no settlements ; the territories beyond 
those lines, in either direction, being free to both nations, provided 
that the subjects of either should have access to the settlements 
thus made by the other party. The line first proposed by the 
British as the northern boundary, was to extend from the Pacific, 
along the 31st parallel of latitude, to the Colorado, thence along 
that river to its source, and thence to the nearest branch of the 
Missouri ; but another line was afterwards oflfered, running from 
the Pacific, along the 40th parallel of latitude, eastward to the 
Missouri. The Spanish government, however, positively refused to 
assent to these or any other lines of boundary thus arbitrarily 
chosen ; and all hope of accommodation seemed to be destroyed. 
It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the admission of either 
of these lines would have materially aflfected the destinies of the 
United States, and, indeed, of the whole northern continent. 

In the mean time, events were occurring in other parts of Europe, 
which contributed to change the views of the disputing parties, and 
to incline them to compromise their differences, and even to unite 
their forces. 

As soon as the dispute between Great Britain and Spain, and the 

* Narrative of the negotiations occasioned by the dispute between England and 
Spain in the year 1790, officially published by the British ministers in 1790. 



208 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT. [1790. 

preparations of those powers for war, became known, King Louis 
XVI. of France ordered fourteen sail of the hne to be equipped 
for active service, in ordei to meet contingencies. He was, how- 
ever, under the necessity of communicating this measure to the 
National Assembly, then in session, which seized the occasion to 
deprive the crown of one of its most essential attributes. On the 
24th of May, a decree was passed by that body, establishing that 
the right to make war or peace belonged to the nation, and could 
only be exercised through the concurrence of the legislative and the 
executive branches of the government ; and that no treaty with an- 
other power could have effect until it had been ratified by the rep- 
resentatives of the nation : a committee was at the same time 
appointed to examine and report upon all the existing treaties of 
alliance between France and other nations. These proceedings 
were equivalent to an annulment of the Family Compact between 
the sovereigns of the house of Bourbon : nevertheless, when the 
king of Spain found himself pressed by Great Britain to relinquish 
his exclusive pretensions with regard to America, he formally ap- 
plied to his cousin of France for aid, agreeably to that compact, in 
resisting those demands ; declaring, at the same time, that, unless 
the assistance should be given speedily and effectually, " Spain 
would be under the necessity of seeking other friends and allies 
among all the powers of Europe, without excepting any, on whom 
she could rely in case of need." 

The letter of the king of Spain was submitted by Louis XVL to 
the National Assembly, by which it was referred to the committee 
appointed to examine the existing treaties between France and 
other nations ; and, in the name of that committee, the celebrated 
Mirabeau, on the 24th of August, presented a luminous report, in- 
cluding considerations of the character of the Family Compact and 
other engagements between France and Spain, and a view of 
the actual positions of Spain and Great Britain towards each 
other and towards France. The questions raised by this report 
were debated, with great display of eloquence and political wis- 
dom, by Mirabeau, the Abbe Maury, Lameth, Barnave, and other 
distinguished members of the Assembly ; and it was decreed that 
France, while taking proper measures to maintain peace, should 
observe the existing commercial and defensive engagements between 
her government and that of Spain ; but that a new and national 
treaty should be immediately negotiated, wherein the relations of 
the two countries towards each other should be defined and fixed 
with precision and clearness, agreeably to the views of general 



1790.] SECRET NEGOTIATION AT PARIS. 209 

peace, and the principles of justice, which were, in future, to prevail 
in France ; and that, taking into consideration the armaments then 
in progress throughout Europe, and the dangers to which the 
commerce and colonies of France might be exposed, the marine 
force of the kingdom sliould be increased, without delay, to forty- 
five sail of the line, and a proportionate number of frigates. 

Although this decree contained no direct promise of assistance 
to Spain, yet it showed that the French government penetrated 
the designs of the British, and considered them inimical to its own 
interests ; while, at the same time, the report, on which the decree 
was based, evinced an ardent desire, on the part of the French 
reformers, to preserve peace. In the mean time, revolutionary 
principles were making rapid progress throughout Europe. The 
Dutch, who had engaged to assist the British with a fleet, in case 
of a war with Spain, found their forces necessary at home ; Swe- 
den having, much to the dissatisfaction of the court of London, 
made peace with Russia, the latter power was left at liberty to pros- 
ecute its schemes for the dismemberment of " England's old ally," 
Turkey ; and, in the East Indies, Tippoo Saib was beginning that 
war against the British power which he prosecuted so long and 
vigorously. Moreover, the expenses of the British armament had 
already amounted to more than four millions of pounds ; and the 
financial condition of England was not such as to encourage her 
government to commence hostilities, which would, most probably, 
become general. Under these circumstances, the court of St. 
James was under the necessity of lowering its tone, and of receding 
from its first demands. The determination of lines of boundary to 
the Spanish American dominions in the north and in the south was 
no longer required ; and it was admitted that the navigation and 
fishery of British subjects in the Pacific Ocean should not be 
carried on within ten sea leagues of any existing Sj)anish settle- 
ment, and that neither party should form settlements on the coasts 
of South America, south of those actually occupied by Spain. Mr. 
Pitt, moreover, knowing the intimate relations which still subsisted 
between the French and Spanish governments, commissioned a 
gentleman at Paris, upon whom he could rely, to sound Mirabeau, 
and other leaders of the National Assembly ; and, having reason 
to believe them sincerely anxious to prevent hostilities, he instructed 
his agent to propose a secret negotiation, to be carried on through 
the medium of the French government, for the restoration of a 
good understanding between Great Britain and Spain. 
27 



210 TERMINATION OF THE DISPUTE. [1790, 

In the letter of instructions from Mr. Pitt to his agent at Paris,* 
he declares it to be essential that " the French should not appear in 
the business as mediators, still less as arbitrators," and that no en- 
couragement should be given to them to propose any other terms 
than those on which Great Britain had already insisted ; that, 
"whatever confidential communications may take place with the 
diplomatic committee of the National Assembly, for the sake of 
bringing them to promote the views of Great Britain, no ostensible 
intercourse could be admitted, except through accredited minis- 
ters ; " and especially that " no assurances be given, directly or 
indirectly, which go further than that Great Britain means to perse- 
vere in the neutrality which she has hitherto observed with respect 
to the internal dissensions of France, and is desirous to cultivate 
peace and friendly relations with that country." The agent, thus 
instructed, presented himself to the diplomatic committee of the 
National Assembly, which at once resolved to do all in its power 
to strengthen the relations with England, and to prevent a war, if 
possible ; and, with this view, three of its most influential members, 
Freteau, Barnave, and Menou, were deputed to conduct the busi- 
ness on its part. These members conferred with the British agent, 
and also with M. de Montmorin, the minister of foreign relations of 
France, who communicated directly with the Spanish government; 
and in this manner the controversy was brought to a close, by a 
convention signed, at the palace of the Escurial, on the 28th of 
October, by Mr. Fitzherbert, the British ambassador, and count de 
Florida Blanca on the part of Spain. 

This convention, commonly called the Nootka treaty, contains 
eight articles, of which the substance is as follows : — 

With respect to the circumstances which occasioned the dispute, 
it was stipulated, by the first and second articles, that the build- 
ings and tracts of land, on the north-west coasts of America, 
of which British subjects were dispossessed by a Spanish officer, 
^^ about the month of April, 1789," shall be restored ; a just repara- 
tion shall be made for all acts of violence or hostility committed by 
the subjects of either party against those of the other, " subsequent 
to the month of April, 1789;" and, in case the subjects of either 
should have been, " since the same period,''^ forcibly dispossessed of 
their lands, vessels, or other property on the American coasts, or the 

* The whole letter is given by Bishop Tomlino, in his Life of Pitt, chap. xii. The 
name of the person to whom it is addressed does not appear ; he is simply mentioned 
as "a gentleman resident at Paris, of considerable diplomatic experience." 



1790.] NOOTKA CONVENTION. 211 

adjoining seas, they shall bo reestablished in the possession thereof, 
or a just compensation shall be made to them for their losses. 

For the future, it was agreed, by the third article of the conven- 
tion, that the subjects of the two parties shall not be disturbed in 
navigating or fishing in the South Seas, or the Pacific Ocean, or in 
landing on the coasts thereof, in places not already occupied, for 
the purposes of settlement or of trade with the natives ; the whole 
subject, nevertheless, to the restrictions specified in the three 
following articles, to wit : — that his Britannic majesty shall take 
the most effectual means to prevent his subjects from making their 
navigation or fishery in those seas a pretext for illicit trade with 
the Spanish settlements ; with which view it is agreed that British 
subjects shall not navigate or fish within ten leagues of any part of 
the coast already occupied by Spain ; that the subjects of both 
nations shall have free access and right of trading in the places 
restored to British subjects by this convention, and in any other 
parts of the north-west coasts of America, north of the places 
already occupied by Spain, where the subjects of either party shall 
have made settlements since the month of April, 1789, or may in 
future make any ; and that no settlement shall in future be made, 
by the subjects of either power, on the eastern or the western coasts 
of South America, or the adjacent islands, south of the parts of 
the same coasts or islands already occupied by Spain ; though the 
subjects of both remained at liberty to land on those coasts and 
islands, and to erect temporary buildings only, for the purposes of 
their fishery. 

Finally, it was agreed, by the seventh article, that, in cases of 
infraction of the convention, the officers of either party shall, with- 
out committing any act of violence themselves, make an exact 
report of the aflair to their respective governments, which would 
terminate such differences in an amicable manner. The eighth 
article relates merely to the time of ratification of the convention.* 

The convention, together with the declaration and counter 
declaration preceding it, were submitted to Parliament on the 3d 
of December, unaccompanied by any other papers relative to the 
negotiation ; and they became the subjects of animated debates, in 
which the most distinguished members of both houses took parts. 
The arrangements were extolled by the ministers and their friends 
in general terms, as vindicating the dignity of the nation, and 

* The convention will be found at length among the Proofs and Illustrations, in 
the latter part of this volume, under the letter K, No. 1. 



212 NOOTKA CONVENTION BEFORE PARLIAMENT. [1790. 

providing reparation for the injuries sustained by its subjects, and 
as securing to those subjects, in future, the rights of navigation and 
fishery in the Pacific and Southern Oceans, and of settlement on 
their unoccupied coasts, and estabUshing the long-discussed ques- 
tions on those points, on such grounds as must prevent all further 
dispute. The opposition, on the other hand, contended that the 
reparation promised by Spain was incomplete and insufficient ; 
that the arrangements for the prevention of future difficulties were 
merely culpable concessions to that power, whereby the rights of 
British subjects were materially abridged, and the Spaniards would 
be encouraged to commit further acts of violence ; and, finally, 
that all the advantages which could be expected from the con- 
vention, even according to the views of the ministers, were far 
below the amount of the expense at which they had been obtained. 

It was noticed by Mr. Charles Fox, as a curious and inexplicable 
incongruity in the treaty, that " about the month of April, 1789," 
should have been inserted as the date of what was known to have 
taken place, agreeably to all the evidence produced, in May of the 
same year ; and that, although, by the first article, the lands and 
buildings declared to have been taken from British subjects by a 
Spanish officer, " about the month of April, 1789," were to be 
restored, yet, by the second article, the lands, buildings, and other 
property, of which the subjects of either party had been dispos- 
sessed '■^subsequent to the month of April, 1789," were to be 
restored, or compensation was to be made to the owners for the 
losses which they might have sustained. Upon this point, it will be 
seen that, if the word " or,^^ in the concluding part of the second 
article, were replaced by and, the incongruity would disappear ; 
but then, also, the first article would become entirely superfluous. 
It would, however, be idle to suppose that any error could have 
been committed with regard to matters so essential, or that the 
want of accordance between the difterent provisions of the con- 
vention, noticed by Mr. Fox, should have been the result of accident 
or carelessness. The ministers, when pressed for explanations on 
this head, answered, i^idirectly, that the Spanish government would 
make the restitutions as agreed in the first article. 

It may here be observed, that no notice whatsoever of a claim, 
on the part of British subjects, to lands or buildings on the north- 
west coast of America, appears either in the king's message to 
Parliament, communicating the fact of the seizures at Nootka, or 



1790.] NOOTKA CONVENTION BEFORE PARLIAMENT. 213 

in the debates in Parliament on that message, or in the official 
correspondence between the two governments on the subject, so far 
as published ; and the only evidence of such acquisition of lands or 
erection of buildings to be found among the documents annexed to 
the Memorial presented by Meares to the ministry, is contained in 
the information of William Graham, a seaman of the Felice, which 
was talcen in London five days after the date of the Memorial. 
" The statement of actual and probable losses,'^ for which the memo- 
rialists prayed to be indemnified, to the amount of six hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, is, moreover, confined entirely to losses con- 
sequent upon the seizure of the vessels and cargoes at Nootka. 
This silence, with regard to lands and buildings, in all the docu- 
ments brought from China by Meares, certainly authorizes the 
suspicion that the idea of advancing a claim on those points may 
have occurred to that gentleman, or may have been suggested 
to him after his arrival in England, and even after his first commu- 
nications with the ministers. 

With respect to the rights of navigation and fishery in the Pacific 
and Southern Oceans, and of settlement on their unoccupied coasts, 
it was insisted by Fox, Grey, the marquis of Lansdowne, and other 
eminent members of the opposition in Parhament, that nothing 
had been gained, but, on the contrary, much had been surrendered, 
by the convention. " Our right, before the convention," said Mr. Fox, 
— " whether admitted or denied by Spain loas of no consequence, — 
was to settle in any part of South or North-West America, not for- 
tified against us by previous occupancy ; and we were now restrict- 
ed to settle in certain places only, and under certain conditions. 
Our rights of fishing extended to the whole ocean ; and now it was 
limited, and not to be exercised within certain distances of the 
Spanish settlements. Our right of making settlements was not, as 
now, a right to build huts, but to plant colonies, if we thought 
proper. In renouncing all right to make settlements in South 
America, we had given to Spain what she considered as inestima- 
ble, and had, in return, been contented with dross." " In every 
place in which we might settle," said Grey, " access was left for the 
Spaniards. Where we might form a settlement on one hill, they 
might erect a fort on another ; and a merchant must run all the 
risks of a discovery, and all the expenses of an establishment, for a 
property which was liable to be the subject of continual dispute, 
and could never be placed upon a permanent footing." 



214 REVIEW OF THE NOOTKA CONVENTION. [1790. 

As to the utility of the convention in preventing disputes in 
future between the two nations, Mr. Fox was wholly incredulous ; 
and he predicted that difficulties would soon arise (as they did) 
from the impossibility of devising and enforcmg any measures on 
the part of Great Britain, which could be considered " effectual,^' in 
checking illicit trade between British subjects and the Spanish set- 
tlements in America. " This treaty," says he, in conclusion, " re- 
minds me of a lawyer's will, drawn by himself, with a note in the 
margin of a particular clause — ' This will afford room for an excel- 
lent disquisition in the Court of Chancery.'' With equal propriety, 
and full as much truth, might those who had extolled the latp i^ego- 
tiation, for the occasion it had given to show the vigor and prompt- 
itude of the national resources, write in the margin of most of the 
articles of the convention — ' This will afford an admirable oppor- 
tunity for a future display of the power and energy of Great 
Britain.' " 

To all these objections the ministers and their friends gave only 
short, general, and evasive answers. Their great majorities in both 
houses enabled them to dispense with arguments, and to evade the 
calls for information or papers relating to the transaction ; and, 
having triumphantly carried their vote of thanks to the sovereign, 
they were left at liberty to execute the new engagements, according 
to their own construction, for which they had certainly provided 
themselves with ample space. 

As the convention of October, 1790, was the first diplomatic ar- 
rangement between the governments of civilized nations with regard 
to the north-west coast of North America, its conclusion forms an 
important era in the history of that part of the world. On exam- 
ining its stipulations, we shall see that they were calculated 
to produce very few and slight changes in any way, and that 
those changes were not, upon the whole, disadvantageous to the 
real interests of Spain. The exclusive navigation of the Pacific and 
Southern Oceans, and the sovereignty of the vacant territories of 
America bordering upon them, were claimed by Spain, only with 
the object of preventing other nations from intercourse with her 
settlements ; as her government foresaw that such intercourse, par- 
ticularly with the British, who had for more than two centuries 
been striving to establish it, would be fatal to the subsistence of 
Spanish supremacy over those dominions. By the convention, both 
parties were admitted, equally, to navigate and fish in the above- 



1790.] REVIEW OF THE NOOTKA CONVENTION. 215 

named seas ; but the British were, at the same time, specially pro- 
hibited from approaching the territories under the actual authority 
of Spain, and were thus debarred from the exercise of a privilege 
advantageous to themselves and most annoying to Spain, which 
they previously possessed in virtue of their maritime superiority. 
Both parties were by the convention equally excluded from settling 
on the vacant coasts of South America, and from exercising that 
jurisdiction which is essential to political sovereignty, over any spot 
north of the most northern Spanish settlement on the Pacific : but 
the British and the Russians were the only nations who would be 
likely to occupy any of those territories, and the British would not, 
probably, concede to the Russians any rights greater than those 
wliich they themselves possessed ; and any establishment which 
either of those powers might form in tlie north, under circumstances 
so disadvantageous, would be separated from the settled provinces 
of Spain by a region of mountains, forests, and deserts, of more 
than a thousand miles in extent. The convention, in fine, estab- 
lished new bases for the navigation and fishery of the respective 
parties, and their trade with the natives on the unoccupied coasts 
of America ; but it determined nothing regarding the rights of either 
to the sovereignty of any portion of America, except so far as it 
may imply an abrogation, or rather a suspension, of all such claims, 
on both sides, to any of those coasts. 

It is, however, probable that the convention published, as the 
result of this negotiation, did not contain all the engagements 
contracted by Great Britain and Spain towards each other on that 
occasion. It was generally believed in Europe that a secret treaty 
of alliance was at the same time signed, by which the two nations 
were bound, under certain contingencies, to act together against 
France, with the understanding that the stipulations of the conven- 
tion published should remain inoperative ; and this supposition is 
strengthened by the third article of the treaty of alliance between 
those powers, concluded on the 25tli of May, 1793, setting forth 
that, " Their majesties having perceived just grounds of jealousy 
and uneasiness for the safety of their respective dominions, and for 
the maintenance of the general system of Europe, in the measures 
which have been for some time past adopted by France, they had 
already agreed to establish between them an intimate and entire con- 
cert, upon the means of opposing a sufficient barrier to those dan- 
gerous views of aggression and aggrandizement," &c. 



216 



CHAPTER X. 

1790 TO 1792. 

Vancouver sent by the British Government to explore the Coasts of America, and 
receive Possession of Lands and Buildings agreeably to the Convention with 
Spain — Passage of the Washington, under Kendrick, through the Strait of Fuca, 
in 1789 — Nootka reoccupied by the Spaniards — Voyages of Fidalgo, Quimper, 
Elisa, Billings, Marchand, and Malaspina — Voyages of the American Fur Tra- 
ders Gray, Ingraham, and Kendrick — Discovery of the Washington Islands by 
Ingraham. 

In execution of the first and second articles of the conven- 
tion of October, 1790, between Spain and Great Britain, com- 
missioners were appointed on each side, who were to meet at 
Nootka Sound, and there to determine what lands and buildings 
were to be restored to the British claimants, or what amount of 
indemnification was to be made to them by Spain. The British 
government at first selected Captain Trowbridge as its agent for 
this purpose ; but the business was afterwards committed to Captain 
George Vancouver, who was then about to sail on a voyage of ex- 
ploration to the Pacific. 

Vancouver was instructed to examine and survey the whole 
shores of the American continent on the Pacific, from the 35th to 
the 60th parallels of latitude ; to ascertain particularly the number, 
situation, and extent of the settlements of civilized nations within 
these limits ; and especially to acquire information as to the nature 
and direction of any water-passage, which might serve as a channel 
for commercial intercourse between that side of America and the 
territories on the Atlantic side occupied by British subjects. For 
this last-mentioned object, he was particularly to " examine the sup- 
posed Strait of Juan de Fuca, said to be situated between the 48th 
and the 49th degrees of north latitude, and to lead to an opening 
through which the sloop Washington is reported to have passed in 
1789, and to have come out again to the northward of Nootka."* 

* Introduction to Vancouver's narrative of his voyage. 



1791.] kendrick's passage through fuca's strait. 217 

With these orders, Vancouver sailed from England in January, 
1791, in the ship Discovery, accompanied by the brig Chatham, 
under the command of Lieutenant Robert Broughton. The instruc- 
tions for his conduct as commissioner were afterwards despatched 
to him in the store-ship Daedalus. 

The account of the passage of the Washington through the Strait 
of Fuca, mentioned in the instructions to Vancouver, had appeared 
in the " Observations on the prohahh Existence of a J^orth-West 
Passage," prefixed by Meares to the narrative of his voyages, which 
had then been recently published at London. Meares there says, 
" The Washington entered the Straits of John de Fuca, the knowl- 
edge of which she had received from us ; and, penetrating up them, 
entered into an extensive sea, where she steered to the northward 
and eastward, and had communications with the various tribes who 
inhabit the shores of the numerous islands that are situated at the 
back of Nootka Sound, and speak, with some little variation, the 
language of the Nootkan people. The track of this vessel is marked 
on the map, and is of great moment, as it is now completely ascer- 
tained that Nootka Sound and the parts adjacent are islands, and 
comprehended within the great northern archipelago. The sea also 
which is seen to the east is of great extent, and it is from this sta- 
tionary point, and the most westerly parts of Hudson's Bay, that we 
are to form an estimate of the distance between them. The most 
easterly direction of the Washington's course is to the longitude of 
237 degrees east of Greenwich. It is probable, however, tiiat the 
master of that vessel did not make any astronomical observations, to 
give a just idea of that station ; but, as we have those made by Cap- 
tain Cook at Nootka Sound, we may be able to form a conjecture, 
somewhat approaching the truth, concerning the distance between 
Nootka and the easternmost station of the Washington in the north- 
ern archipelago ; and consequently this station may be presumed to 
be in the longitude, or thereabout, of 237 degrees east of Green- 
wich." In another place, Meares speaks of the proofs brought by 
the Washington, " which sailed through a sea extending upwards of 
eight degrees of latitude," in support of his opinion, that the north- 
western portion of America was a collection of islands : and in the 
chart annexed, " i/te sketch of the track of the American sloop Wash- 
ington in the autumn of 1789," is represented by those words run- 
ning in a semi-oval line from the southern entrance of the Strait of 
Fuca, at Cape Flattery, eastward, to the longitude of 237 degrees, 
then north-westward, to the 55th parallel of latitude, then west- 
28 



218 kendrick's passage through fuca's strait. [1789. 

ward, through the passage north of Queen Charlotte's Island, to the 
Pacific. The sea through which the track extends is represented 
as unlimited in the east, and communicating, in the west, with the 
Pacific by channels between islands : no pretension to accuracy is, 
however, made in this part of the chart, the object being merely to 
show that the Washington sailed from the southern entrance of the 
strait eastward to the longitude of 237 degrees, and northward 
to the latitude of 55 degrees. 

The name of the person under whose command the passage 
was said to have been effected is not given ; but. Gray being 
frequently mentioned by Meares, in his narrative and accompanying 
papers, as the captain of the Washington, it was naturally supposed 
that, if that sloop did pass through the strait, she must have done so 
under the command of Gray ; and when Vancouver, who met Gray 
near Nootka in 1792, as will be hereafter related, was assured by 
him that he had entered the opening, but had only advanced fifty 
miles ivithin it, the entire erroneousness of the account given by 
Meares was regarded as established. 

However, about the time of Vancouver's departure from England, 
an angry discussion was carried on through the medium of pam- 
phlets, between Meares, and Dixon the captain of the ship Queen 
Charlotte, (one of the vessels sent to the Pacific by the King 
George's Sound Company of London,) in consequence of the se- 
vere remarks made by Meares, in his work, on the character of 
Dixon, and on inany parts of his journal, which had been pub- 
lished in 1789. Dixon, in his first pamphlet,* particularly attacked 
and ridiculed the account given by his opponent of the passage of 
the Washington, and sneeringly summoned him to "inform the 
public from what authority he had introduced the track of that ves- 
sel into his chart." To this Meares, in his Answer,! says, "Mr. 
Neville, a gentleman of the most respectable character, who came 
home in the Chesterfield, a ship in the service of the East India 
Company, made that communication to me which I have communi- 
cated to the public. Mr. Kendrick, who commanded the Wash- 
ington, arrived at China, with a very valuable cargo of furs, previ- 
ous to the departure of the Chesterfield ; and Mr. Neville, who was 

* Remarks on the Voyages of John Meares, in a Letter to that Gentleman, by 
George Dixon, late Commander of the Queen Charlotte in a Voyage around the 
World. London, 1790. 

t An Answer to Mr. George Dixon, «&c., by John Meares ; in which the Remarks 
of Mr. Dixon are fully considered and refuted. London, 1791. 



1789.] kendrick's passage through the strait of fuca. 219 

continually with him during that interval, and received the particu- 
lars of the track from him, was so obliging as to state it to me." 

Thus it appears that the passage of the Washmgton through the 
strait, as reported by Meares, took place under Kendrick, after Gray 
had quitted the command of that sloop. This explanation was 
published in London subsequent to the departure of Vancouver for 
the Pacific ; and, the discussion between Meares and Dixon being 
on matters in which the public could have taken little or no interest, 
it was doubtless forgotten, and their pamphlets were out of circu- 
lation, long before the return of the navigator to England. 

With regard to the truth or falsehood of the account, no infor- 
mation has been obtained, in addition to that afforded by Meares ; 
and, although little dependence can be placed on his statements, 
when unsupported by other evidence, yet they should not be 
rejected in this case, because — first, he had no interest in ascribing 
any thing meritorious to citizens of the United States, whom he 
uniformly mentions with contempt or dislike in his work, and 
accuses of taking part with the Spaniards against his vessels ; 
— secondly, the subject was one with which he was perfectly con- 
versant, and on which he would not probably have been deceived, 
or have committed any error of judgment; and, — lastly, the geog- 
raphy of that part of the American coasts corresponds exactly with 
the descriptions given by Kendrick of what he had seen, though 
the inferences drawn from them by Meares are incorrect. Thus 
the easternmost part of the Strait of Fuca is now known to be in 
the meridian of 237 i^ degrees east from Greenwich, and under the 
parallel of 48^ degrees, from the intersection of which lines the 
coast of the continent runs north-westward, through ten degrees of 
latitude, penetrated by numerous inlets, and bordered by thousands 
of islands ; so that a navigator, sailing along this coast, without 
tracing to their terminations all these channels and inlets, might 
well have supposed himself in a sea extending far on either side, 
and filled with islands. 

Under these circumstances, Kendrick is to be considered as the 
first person, belonging to a civilized nation, who sailed through the 
Strait of Fuca, after its discovery by the Greek pilot, in 1592. 

Vancouver did not reach the north-west coasts of America until 
March, 1792. In the mean time, the Spaniards had resumed their 
position at Nootka Sound, and formed another establishment in its 
vicinity ; and several voyages of discovery had been made by their 
navigators along those coasts. The Spanish government was, 



220 VOYAGE OF FIDALGO. [1790 

indeed, then seriously directing its attention to the discovery and 
occupation of the territories north of its settlements in California, 
agreeably to the plan devised in 1765, and with the same object 
of preventing those territories from falling into the possession of 
other nations ; and, for these purposes, the viceroy of Mexico was 
directed to employ every means at his disposal. Martinez was, 
indeed, deprived of his command, immediately on his arrival in 
San Bias, in Decemberj 1789: but his vessels, including the 
Princess Royal, which had been taken from the English in the 
preceding summer, were sent back to Nootka Sound, under Cap- 
tain Francisco Elisa, in the spring of 1790 ; and preparations were 
immediately begun for a permanent establishment on Friendly 
Cove. 

As soon as the first arrangements for this purpose were completed, 
Elisa despatched Lieutenant Salvador Fidalgo, in the schooner San 
Carlos, to examine the coasts occupied by the Russians, and inquire 
into the proceedings of that nation in America. Fidalgo accord- 
ingly sailed for Prince William's Sound, in which, and in Cook's 
River, he spent nearly three months, engaged in surveying and 
in visiting the Russian establishments ; his provisions being then 
exhausted, he took his departure for San Bias, where he arrived on 
the 14th of November. The geographical information obtained by 
him was scanty ; and the only news which he brought back, 
respecting the proceedings of the Russians, was, that they had 
formed an establishment on Prince William's Sound, and that a 
ship had passed that bay from Kamtchatka, on an exploring expe- 
dition towards the east.* 

The Russian ship, thus mentioned by Fidalgo, was one of those 
which had been begun at Ochotsk in 1785, by order of the empress 
Catharine, for a f " secret astronomical and geographical expedition, 
to navigate the Frozen Ocean, and describe its coasts, and to 
ascertain the situation of the islands in the sea between the conti- 
nents of Asia and America." For this expedition, a number of 
officers and men of science, from various parts of Europe, were 
engaged ; and the command was intrusted to Joseph Billings, an 
Englishman, who had accompanied Cook, in his last expedition, as 
assistant astronomer : but the preparations proceeded so slowly, in 
consequence of the want of every thing requisite for the purpose at 

* Manuscript journal of the voyage of Fidalgo, among the documents obtained from 
the hydrographical department of Madrid. 

t Narrative of the Russian expedition under Billings, by Martin Sauer. 



1790.] VOYAGES OF BILLINGS AND qUIMPER. 221 

Ochotsk, that the vessels were not ready for sea until 1789, and 
then one of them was wrecked immediately after leaving the port. 
With the other vessel Billings took his departure, on the 2d of 
May, 1790, and sailed eastward, stopping, in his way, at Unalashka, 
Kodiak, and Prince William's Sound, as far as Mount St. Elias ; 
but there his provisions began to fail, and he returned to Petro- 
pawlowsk, soon after reaching which he abandoned the command 
of the enterprise. In the following year, the same vessel, with 
another, which had been built in Kamtchatka, quitted the Bay of 
Avatscha, under Captains Hall and Sarytscheff, neither of whom 
advanced beyond Bering's Strait on the north, or Aliaska on the 
east, or collected any information of value within those limits. A 
melancholy picture of the sufferings experienced in these vessels 
has been presented in the narrative of Martin Sauer, a German, 
who, in an unlucky moment, agreed to act as secretary to the expe- 
dition : another account, contradicting that of Sauer in many 
particulars, has been published by Sarytscheff, who attributes the 
failure of the enterprise to the incapacity of Billings. 

In the summer of 1790, an attempt was also made, by the 
Spaniards, to explore the supposed Strait of Juan de Fuca. For 
that purpose, Ehsa, the commandant of Nootka, detached Lieu- 
tenant Quimper, in the sloop Princess Royal, who traced the pas- 
sage in an eastwardly direction, examining both its shores, to the 
distance of about a hundred miles from its mouth, where it was 
observed to branch off into a number of smaller passages, towards 
the south, the east, and the north, some of which were channels 
between islands, while others appeared to extend far into the 
interior. Quimper was unable, from want of time, to penetrate 
any of these passages ; and he could do no more than note the 
positions of their entrances, and of several harbors, all of which 
are now well known, though they are generally distinguished by 
names different from those assigned to them by the Spaniards. 
Among these passages and harbors were the Canal de Caamano, 
afterwards named by Vancouver Admiralty Inlet ; the Boca de 
Flon, or Deception Passage ; the Canal de Guemes, and Canal de 
Haro, which may still be found under those names in English 
charts, extending northward from the eastern end of the strait ; 
Port (Quadra, the Port Discovery of Vancouver, said to be one of 
the best harbors on the Pacific side of America, with Port Q^uimper, 
near it on the west ; and Port Nunez Gaona, called Poverty Cove 
by the American fur traders, situated a few miles east of Cape 



222 VOYAGE OF MALASPINA. [1791. 

Flattery, where the Spaniards attempted, in 1792, to form a settle- 
ment. Having performed this duty as well as was possible under 
the circumstances in which he was placed, Q,uimper returned to 
Nootka, where he arrived in the beginning of August.* 

On the 2d of June, 1791, Captain Alexandro Malaspina,f an 
accomplished Itahan navigator in the service of Spain, who was 
then engaged in an expedition of survey and discovery in the 
Pacific, arrived on the coast, near Mount San Jacinto, or Edge- 
cumb, with his two ships, the Dcscuhierta, commanded by himself, 
and the AtreviJa, under Captain Bustamente. The principal object 
of their visit was to determine the question as to the existence of 
the Strait of Anian, described in the account of Maldonado's 
pretended voyage, the credibility of which had been, in the pre- 
ceding year, affirmed, by the French geographer Buache, in a 
memoir read before the Academy of Sciences of Paris. With this 
view, they carefully examined the coast between Prince William's 
Sound and Mount Fairweather, running nearly in the direction of 
the 60th parallel, under which Maldonado had placed the entrance 
of his strait into the Pacific, searching the various bays and inlets 
which there open to the sea, particularly that called by the English 
Admiralty Bay, situated at the foot of Mount St. Elias. They 
found, however, — doubtless to their satisfaction, — no passage 
leading northward or eastward from the Pacific ; and they became 
convinced that the whole coast thus surveyed was bordered by an 
unbroken chain of lofty mountains. Want of time prevented them 
from continuing their examinations farther south ; and they could 
only, in passing, determine the latitudes and longitudes of a few 



* The journal of this voyage is among the manuscripts obtained from the hydro- 
graphical department of Madrid : annexed to it is a memoir on the manners, customs, 
and language, of the Indians about Nootka Sound, translated from the English of 
Joseph Ingraham, the mate of the American ship Columbia, who wrote it, at the 
request of Martinez, in 1789. 

t The journals of Malaspina's expedition have never been published. A sketch 
of his voyage along the north-west coasts of America is given in the Introduction to 
the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, in which the highest, and, in some places, the 
most extravagant, praise is bestowed on the officers engaged in it. Yet — will it be 
believed? — the name of Malaspina does not appear there or in any other part of the 
book. The unfortunate commander, having given some offence to Godoy, better 
known as the Prince of the Peace, who then ruled Spain without restriction, was, on 
his return to Europe in 1794, confined in a dungeon at Corunna, and there kept as a 
prisoner until 1S02, when he was liberated, after the peace of Amiens, at the express 
desire cf Napoleon. The name of one who had thus sinned could not be allowed to 
appear on the pages of a work published officially, by the Spanish government, for 
the purpose of vindicating the claims of its navigators. 



1791.] rOYAGE OF MARCHAND. 223 

points between Mount San Jacinto and Nootka Sound, where they 
arrived on the 13th of August. 

The visit made to the north-west coasts of America, in the summer 
of 1791, by Captain Etienne Marchand, in the French commercial 
ship Solide, from Marseilles, is only mentioned on account of the 
Introduction by Fleurieu to the Journal of her voyage, to which 
allusion has been often made in the preceding pages. Marchand 
landed on the shore of the Bay of Guadalupe, or Norfolk Sound, 
near the 56th degree of latitude, where he remained two weeks, en- 
gaged in trading with the natives ; after which he sailed along the 
coasts southward, occasionally landing and making observations, to 
the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, and thence took his departure 
for Canton.* 

In the mean time, nine vessels from England and seven from the 
United States were engaged in the trade on the north-west coasts 
of America. Of the movements of the Enghsh traders few accounts 
have been made public : the most active and enterprising among 
them appears to have been Captain Brown,f of the ship Butter- 
worth, from London, to whom Vancouver acknowledges himself 
indebted for useful information on several occasions. In what man- 
ner the British navigator treated citizens of the United States, from 
whom he derived information much more important, will be shown 
hereafter. 

* Respecting the places thus visited, very little exact information is to be derived 
from the Journal of Marchand, though hundreds of its pages are devoted to philosoph- 
ical speculations (doubtless by the editor) on the origin and capacity of the north- 
west American Indians, their languages and political and religious institutions, and 
political and religious institutions in general. The Journal, indeed, seems to have 
been published merely in order to afford a frame-work for the comments and disqui- 
sitions of the editor, Fleurieu, which, with all their faults, are the only parts of the 
work of any value. 

The Introduction to this Journal is a memoir read by Fleurieu before the National 
Institute at Paris, in 1797, on the subject of the discovery of the north-west coasts of 
America, in which he presents a history, with reviews of all other accounts, of the 
several exploring voyages made by people of civilized nations along those coasts, 
from the period of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards to the year 1790, when 
Marchand began his vo-yage. For such a task, Fleurieu was well fitted, by his 
previous labors, his general science, and his acquaintance with geography and mari- 
time affairs : his memoir is elegantly written, and his accounts and opinions are, for 
the most part, clear, fair, and liberal towards individuals and nations. This praise is, 
however, not to be awarded to every portion of his work. He was extravagant in 
generalizing, and oflen careless in the examination of his authorities, in consequence 
of which he committed numerous errors ; and his devotion to his own country, and 
his contempt for the Spaniards and their government, led him frequently to make 
assertions and observations at variance with justice and truth. 

t Brown was killed by the natives, at Woalioo, one of the Sandwich Islands, 
in January, 1795. 



224 ATTACK ON THE ELEONORA AT MOWEE. [1790. 

The second trading adventure to the North Pacific made by citi- 
zens of the United States was that of Captain Metcalf, who sailed 
from New York in 1788, in the brig Eleonora, for Canton, and 
there purchased a small schooner, which he named the Fair Amer- 
ican, and placed under the command of his son, a youth of eighteen. 
With these vessels he arrived, in November, 1789, at Nootka Sound, 
where the schooner was seized by the Spanish commandant Marti- 
nez ; but she was soon liberated, unfortunately, as it proved, for 
her captain and crew. On their way from the American coast, the 
vessels were separated. The Eleonora, on the 30th of January, 1790, 
reached a small bay in Mowee, one of the Sandwich Islands, where 
she anchored ; and, on the same night, her boat, and a seaman who 
was sleeping in it, were taken away by the natives. On the fol- 
lowing day, the islanders began to assemble in the bay in canoes, 
and on the shores, in great numbers, armed, and showing evidently 
the intention to take the vessel ; and one of them was seized in the 
act of endeavoring to strip off a piece of her copper, under the idea, 
as he confessed, that she would in consequence sink. The natives 
becoming more daring, Metcalf fired on them with grape, and 
burnt their village ; and, having thus apparently quieted them, he 
went farther up the bay, in order to obtain water. Three or four 
days afterwards, a native came on board, who offered to bring back 
the boat and the sailor for a certain reward ; his offer was accepted, 
and, on the following day, he reappeared with the rudder of the 
boat and some of the bones of the man, who had been sacrificed to 
the gods of the island, and coolly demanded the promised recom- 
pense. This demand was granted, with a view to conciliation ; but 
the opposite effect was produced : for the islanders, supposing that 
they had intimidated the Americans, again surrounded the ship in 
their canoes in vast numbers. Metcalf thereupon, either from exas- 
peration, or from his seeing no other mode of safety, fired all his 
guns, charged with grape and nails, among them, and killed, as 
was said, more than one hundred and fifty ; after which he sailed 
for Owyhee, and anchored in Karakakooa Bay.* 

* The account of these transactions is taken principally from a letter written by a 
person on board of the Eleonora, which was published in the newspapers of the 
United States soon after the occurrences ; and from the manuscript journal of Captain 
Ingraham, which confirms all the statements of the letter writer. Vancouver (vol. ii. 
p. 136) represents the affair as disadvantaireously to the Americans as possible, accord- 
tng to his constant practice. Jarvis, in his History of the Sandwich Islands, givea 
the account as handed down by the natives, holding Metcalf up to view as a monster 
of cruelty, and the capture of the Fair American as " an awful retribution." 



1790.] CAPTURE OF THE FAIR AMERICAN AT OWYHEE. 225 

While the Eleonora was lying in this bay, the natives of Owyhee 
signally avenged the slaughter of their brethren at Mowee. 

On the 5th of February, the schooner Fair American, which had 
been separated from the brig, anchored in the Bay of Toyahyah, 
(now called Kawaihae,) on the north-west side of Owyhee, about 
thirty miles north of Karakakooa Bay, where trade was begun with 
the natives. As these people conducted themselves peaceably, they 
were allowed to come on board the vessel without restriction ; at 
length, a chief named Tamaahmoto, or Kamamoko, appeared, with 
a number of attendants, to present the captain with a feather cap, 
and while in the act of placing this ornament on young Metcalf 's 
head, he seized him and threw him overboard, where he was im- 
mediately killed ; the other seamen, with the exception of one, were 
in like manner despatched, and the schooner was then drawn on 
shore and rifled. There is no reason to believe that this was done 
in consequence of the proceedings of the captain of the Eleonora at 
Mowee, or, indeed, that those proceedings were known at Owyhee 
when the schooner was taken ; on the contrary, Tamaahmoto, in 
1794, assured Vancouver that he was induced to act as he did, by 
the ill-treatment of Metcalf, who had whipped him severely when 
at Toyahyah, in 1789. 

A plan was, at the same time, formed by Tianna and Tamaha- 
maha, the principal chiefs of the island, to take the Eleonora. The 
boatswain of that brig, named John Young, happened, however, 
to be on shore, and there met with two English seamen, from whom 
he received information of the plan ; and they succeeded in pre- 
vailing on Tamahamaha to allow them to write a letter to Captain 
Metcalf, urging his immediate departure, on condition that they 
should enter the service of the native chief. Metcalf took their 
advice, and sailed away without learning the news of his son's fate. 
Young also succeeded in saving the life of Isaac Davis, the mate 
of the Fair American, who had been severely wounded at the time 
of the capture of that schooner; and these two men remained in 
the service of Tamahamaha until their deaths.* 

The ship Columbia returned to Boston from Canton, under the 
command of Gray, on the 10th of August, 1790, as already men- 
tioned : but the cargo of Chinese articles brought by her was insuf- 
ficient to cover the expenses of her voyage ; and her owners were 

* Davis died in 1808. Toung was, for many years, governor of Woahoo, and died 
in 1836, nearly ninety years old : for an anecdote illustrative of his character, see 
Commodore Porter's Journal of his Cruise in the Pacific, vol. ii. p. 215. 

29 



226 VOYAGE OF INGRAHAM IN THE HOPE. [1791. 

SO little satisfied with these results, that some of them sold out their 
shares to the others, who, determining to persevere in the enter- 
prise, refitted the Columbia for a new voyage of the same kind. 
Before her departure, however, the brig Hope, of seventy tons, 
which had also been equipped for the North Pacific trade, sailed 
from Boston, under the command of Joseph Ingraham, the former 
mate of the Columbia ; and these vessels were followed by the 
Hancock, under Captain Crowel, and the Jefferson, under Captain 
Roberts, likewise from Boston, and the Margaret, under Captain 
Magee, from New York. A short notice of Ingraham's voyage will 
be first presented. 

The brig Hope quitted Boston on the 16th of September, 1790, 
and, taking the usual course by the Cape Verd Islands and Brazil, 
she arrived on the 13th of January, 1791, at the entrance of 
Berkeley Sound, or Port Soledad, in the Falkland Islands, where 
she found a Spanish establishment on the shore, and a Spanish 
vessel of war in the harbor.* Ingraham was anxious to visit the 
establishment, but the commandant was unwilling to allow him to 
do so, though he furnished him liberally with provisions. Quitting 
the Falkland Islands, Ingraham doubled Cape Horn, and, on the 
1 9th of April, he discovered six islands previously unknown, in the 
centre of the Pacific Ocean, between the 8th and the 10th parallels 
of latitude,f to which he gave the names severally of Washington, 
Adams, Franklin, Knox, Federal, and Lincoln ; and after some days 

* Manuscript journal of the Hope's voyage, written by Ingraham. 

t These islands are situated a little north of the group called the Marquesas de 
Mendoza, discovered by the Spanish navigator Mendana, in 1595, and about six 
hundred miles north-east of Otaheite, directly in the course of vessels sailing from 
Cape Horn to the north-west coast of America, or to China, to which they offer con- 
venient places for obtaining water and other refreshments. They were not seen by 
Cook, who visited the Marquesas in 1774; nor does any notice of them appear on 
any chart or account of earlier date than 1791, when they were discovered by Ingra- 
ham, as above stated. They were afterwards seen successively, on the 2lst of June, 
1791, by Marchand, in the French ship Solide, who named them Pes de (a R6volu- 
tion; on the 30th of June, 1792, by Hergest, in the British brig Daedalus, after whom 
Vancouver called them HergesVs Islands, though he was well aware of their previous 
discovery by Ingraham ; and on the 6th of March, 1793, by Roberts, in the Jefferson, 
from Boston, who bestowed on them the name of Washington's Islands. The earliest 
notice of them was published in the form of an extract from Ingraham's Journal, in 
the Massachiisclts Historical Collection, at Boston, in 1793 : the volume of the same 
work, for 1795, contains Roberts's account of his visit, afler which appeared, in suc- 
cession, the accounts of Hergest in Vancouver's Journal, and of Marchand ; and 
they have since been visited and described by Krusenstern, Lisiansky, Langsdorf, 
Porter, Belcher, Wilkes, and other navigators. Porter, during his cruise in the Pacific, 
in the Essex, in 1813, remained some time at Nooahivah, the largest of the islands. 
The recent occupation of this group by the French is well known. 



1791.] VOYAGE OF INGRAHAM IN THE HOPE. 22t 

spent in examining them, he took his course for Owyhee, where he 
arrived on the 20th of May. 

At Owyhee, the Hope was visited by Tamahamaha, whose power 
was then rapidly increasing, as well as by his rival Tianna ; and both 
these chiefs were earnest in their solicitations tliat Ingraham should 
go on shore and visit their towns. The American captain, however, 
feeling some distrust, did not think it prudent to leave his vessel ; and, 
after obtaining some provisions and water, he sailed to the adjacent 
Island of Mowee, where he received from two white men, who 
escaped to the Hope, the news of the capture of the schooner Fair 
American, and the murder of her crew at Owyhee, in February of 
the preceding year. He then had reason to congratulate himself at 
having resisted the invitations of Tamahamaha and Tianna, as he 
had no doubt that he and his vessel and crew would otherwise have 
been sacrificed to their hatred or cupidity. At Mowee, on the 
26th, the brig was honored by the presence of Titeree, or Kahikili, 
the king, and Taio, a principal chief; and Ingraham obtained from 
them the liberation of an American seaman, who had been, for 
some time, detained as prisoner in the island. On the following 
day, at Woahoo, the natives surrounded the vessel in their canoes, 
to the number of many thousands, evidently with the intention of 
taking her ; and it became necessary to fire several muskets upon 
them before she could be freed from the danger. 

On the 1st of June, Ingraham left the Sandwich Islands, and on 
the 29th of the same month he dropped anchor in a harbor on the 
south-east side of Queen Charlotte's, or Washington's, Island, to 
which he gave the name of Magee's Sound, in honor of one of the 
owners of his vessel. On the coasts of this island, and of the other 
islands, and the continent adjacent on the north and east, he spent 
the summer in trading, and collecting information as to the geog- 
raphy and natural history, and the languages, manners, and customs, 
of the inhabitants, on all which subjects his journal contains 
minute and interesting details ; and at the end of the season he 
took his departure for China, where he arrived on the 1st of De- 
cember, 1791. 

At Macao, Ingraham found the French ship Solide, under 
Captain Marchand, whose visit to the north-west coast of Amer- 
ica, in the preceding summer, has been already mentioned ; and he 
received much kindness, which he acknowledges by grateful expres- 
sions in his journal, from Roblet, the surgeon, and Chanal, the first 



228 kendrick's speculations in the pacific. [1791. 

officer of that vessel. To these gentlemen he also communicated 
the particulars of his voyage ; and thus they learned, to their great 
regret, that they had been anticipated, by the American captain, in 
a discovery which was expected by them to cast considerable eclat 
on their expedition. Marchand had, in the month of June previous, 
seen a group of islands in the centre of the Pacific Ocean, of which 
he believed himself to be the discoverer, as they were not described 
in any narrative or chart then pubhshed ; and, under this impres- 
sion, he named them lies de la Revolution, and had just sent an 
account of them to France, which was submitted formally to the 
National Assembly : on examining the journal of the Hope, however, 
he could have no doubt that this was the same group which had 
been found by Ingraham in April ; and the fact is admitted, though 
with evident reluctance, in the narrative of his voyage.* 

Captain Kendrick, in the Washington, which had been altered 
into a brig, also arrived at Macao while the Hope was lying there. 
He had been engaged, since 1789, in various speculations, one of 
which was the collection and transportation to China of the odor- 
iferous wood called sandal, which grows in many of the tropical 
islands of the Pacific, and is in great demand throughout the 
Celestial Empire. Vancouver pronounced this scheme chimerical ; 
but experience has proved that it was founded on just calculations, 
and the business has been ever since prosecuted with advantage, 
especially by the Americans. 

Another of Kendrick's speculations has not hitherto produced 
any fruit. In the summer of 1791, he purchased from Maquinna, 
Wicanish, and other chiefs, several large tracts of land near Nootka 
Sound, for which he obtained deeds duly marked by those person- 
ages, and witnessed by the officers and men of the Washington. 
Attempts were made, by the owners of that vessel, to sell these 
lands at London in 1793, but no purchasers were found ; and 
applications have since been addressed, by the legal representatives 
of the owners and of Kendrick, to the government of the United 

* The editor, Fleurieu, thus ingeniously concludes the discussion as to the first dis- 
covery of the islands : " Captain Marchand undoubtedly cannot aspire to the honor 
of priority ; but, like the American captain who preceded him, he has not, on that 
account, the less pretension to the honor of the discovery ; for he could not know, in 
the month of June, J 791, while he was navigating the great ocean, that, a month be- 
fore, another navigator, standing in the same course with himself, had made the same 
discovery." The king of the French has nevertheless been pleased to bestow a gold 
medal on one of the surviving owners of the Solide, on the ground of the discovery of 
those islands by Marchand, as expressly declared in the report of his minister of ma- 
rine, published in the Moniteur of May 25th, 1843. 



1791.] SECOND VOYAGE OF THE COLUMBIA. 229 

States, for a confirmation of the title.* That the lands were thus 
sold by the savage chiefs, there is no reason to doubt ; and Maquinna 
or Wicanisii would as readily have conveyed the whole of America 
to any one for the consideration of a copper kettle : but the validity 
of the acquisition will scarcely be recognized, by the civilized nation 
which may hereafter hold the sovereignty of the country about 
Nootka Sound. Neither Kendrick nor his vessel ever returned to 
America: he was killed, in 1793, at Karakakooa Bay, in Owyhee, 
by a ball accidentally fired from a British vessel, while saluting him. 

At Canton, Ingraham disposed of his furs advantageously, and 
vested the proceeds in teas, which he sent to Boston by a vessel 
chartered for the purpose. He then sailed, on the 3d of April, for 
the north-west coasts of America, and spent the summer in trading 
in and about Queen Charlotte's Island, which was then the principal 
resort of the Americans. 

The Columbia, under her former captain. Gray, left Boston on 
the 28th of September, 1790, ten days after the departure of the 
Hope ; f and, without the occurrence of any thing worthy of note 
on her way, she arrived at Clyoquot, near the entrance of the Strait 
of Fuca, on the 5th of June, 1791. Thence she proceeded, in a 
few days, to the eastern side of Q,ueen Charlotte's Island, on which, 
and on the coasts of the continent and islands in its vicinity, she 
remained until September, engaged in trading and exploring. 
During this time, Gray examined many of the inlets and passages 
between the 54th and the 56th parallels, in one of which — most 
probably the same afterwards called by Vancouver the Portland 

* The circular addressed by the owners of the Washington, on this occasion, is a 
curious document. It is written in four languages, and is couched in terms the 
most unspecific which could have been selected. The '■'■inhabitants of Europe" are 
informed that, " in 1787, Captain J. Kendrick, while prosecuting an advantageous 
voyage with the natives for furs, purchased of tliem, for the owners, a tract of de- 
lightful country, comprehending four degrees of latitude, or two hundred and forty 
miles square ; " and that " such as may be inclined to associate, for settlino- a com- 
monwealth on their own code of laws, on a spot of the globe nowhere surpassed in 
delightful and healthy climate, and fertile soil, claimed by no civilized nation, and 
purchased, under a sacred treaty of peace and commerce, and for a valuable considera- 
tion, of tlie friendly natives, may have the best opportunity of trying the result of such 
an enterprise." Of the situation of this tract of delightful country we learn nothino- 
from the circular, except that it lies in America. The deeds for the lands are de- 
clared to have been registered in the office of the American consul at Macao ; and 
tiiese deeds, or some of them, have been lately published, referring only to the terri- 
tories about Nootka Sound, which, though including all the dominions of the chiefs 
conveying them, do not amount to one twenty-fourth part of two hundred and forty 
miles square. 

\ Log-Vook of the Columbia, from September 28ih, 1790, to February 20tli, 1792. 



230 THE COLUMBIA WINTERS AT CLYOQUOT. [1792. 

Canal — he penetrated from its entrance, in the latitude of 54 
degrees 33 minutes, to the distance of a hundred miles north- 
eastward, without reaching its termination. This inlet he supposed 
to be the Rio de Reyes of Admiral Fonte ; a part of it was named 
by him Massacre Cove, in commemoration of the murder of Cas- 
well, the second mate, and two seamen of his vessel, by the 
natives, on its shore, on the 22d of August. Shortly after this 
melancholy occurrence, the Columbia fell in with the Hope, and 
the two captains communicated to each other, though apparently 
with some reserve, the results of their observations. They then 
separated, Ingraham going to China, as above related, while Gray 
returned to Clyoquot. 

At Clyoquot, the crew of the Columbia passed the winter in a 
fortified habitation, which they erected on the shore of the bay, 
and called Fort Defiance ; and they were employed in building a 
small vessel, which was launched, and named the Adventure. 
Whilst preparing for sea, they were visited by Tatoochseatticus 
and Wicanish, the principal chiefs of the surrounding country, 
with a number of followers, between whom and a Sandwich 
Islander on board the Columbia it soon became evident that some 
understanding had been established. Gray's suspicions being ex- 
cited, he questioned the Sandwich Islander, who at length confessed 
that the Indians had formed a plan for the seizure of the vessels, 
and the murder of their crews, and had promised to spare his life, 
and make him a chief, if he would aid them by wetting the priming 
of all the guns at a particular time. Thus forewarned, the Ameri- 
cans were on their guard ; and the savages, who surrounded the 
vessel on the following day, were kept at a distance. 

In the spring of 1792, the Adventure sailed for Queen Char- 
lotte's Island, under the command of Haswell, the first mate of the 
Columbia ; and Gray took his departure in the ship, on a cruise 
southward along the coasts of the continent, the particulars of which 
will appear in the next chapter. 



231 



CHAPTER XI. 
1792 TO 1796. 

Vancouver and Broughton arrive on the American Coasts in 1792, and meet with 
Gray, vv^ho informs them of his Discovery of the Columbia River — The Strait of 
Fuca surveyed by Vancouver, Gahano, and Valdes — Negotiations between Van- 
couver and Quadra at Nootka — Vancouver's Injustice to the Americans — 
Broughton's Examination of the lower Part of the Columbia River — Vancou- 
ver's Proceedings at the Sandwich Islands — He completes the Survey of the 
North- West Coasts of America, and returns to England — The Spaniards abandon 
Nootka — Conclusions with Regard to the Dispute between Great Britain and 
Spain, and the Convention of 1790. 

The viceroy of Mexico, count de Revillagigedo, on learning the 
results of the voyages of Fidalgo, Quimper, and Malaspina, along 
the north-west coasts of America, ordered three other vessels to be 
prepared, for continuing the exploration of those coasts. In one of 
them, the corvette Aransasu, Lieutenant Jacinto Caamano was 
directed to seek, particularly near the 53d degree of latitude, for 
the mouth of the Rio de Reyes, through which Admiral Fonte 
was said to have sailed, in 1640, north-eastward, into a lake com- 
municating with the Atlantic; while Lieutenants Dionisio Alcala 
Galiano and Cayetano Valdes were to survey tiie Strait of Fuca, in 
the small schooners Sutil and Mexicana. These vessels sailed from 
San Bias in the spring of 1792, and arrived in May at Nootka Sound, 
whence they soon after departed on their respective expeditions.* 

Captain Bodega y Quadra, the superintendent of the marine 
department of San Bias, was at the same time despatched to 
Nootka, to take the command of the forces in that quarter, and to 
treat with Captain Vancouver, who was expected to arrive there in 
the following summer, with regard to the lands and buildings 
claimed by British subjects, in virtue of the first and second articles 
of the convention of 1790. He was instructed, in case it should 

* The works which have served principally as authorities for the accounts in this 
chapter are — the journal of Captain George Vancouver, three vols. 4to., published 
at London in 1797 — the journal of Galiano and Valdes — and the manuscript journal 
of the voyage of the American brig Hope, written by her captain, J. Ingraham — with 
others, to which reference will be made 



232 VANCOUVER REACHES THE NORTH-WEST COAST. [1792. 

be requisite, to abandon Nootka, and withdraw all the Spanish 
forces and settlers to some convenient point of the coast farther 
south ; and, in anticipation of such a contingency, a vessel was sent 
from San Bias, under the command of Fidalgo, to seek for a proper 
spot, and make preparations on it for a permanent establishment. 

Vancouver and Broughton reached the American coast in April, 
1792, a little south of Cape Mendocino, whence they sailed slowly 
northward, to the Strait of Fuca, which they were instructed par- 
ticularly to explore. On their way, they carefully examined the 
shores, and determined the geographical positions of all the most 
prominent points, comparing the results of their observations with 
those obtained by Cook and others who had preceded them. Near 
the 43d degree of latitude, they sought in vain for the river which 
Martin de Aguilar was said to have seen, entering the Pacific there- 
abouts, in 1603; and they appeared inclined to admit as identical 
with the Cape Blanco of that navigator, a high, whitish promontory, 
in the latitude of 42 degrees 52 minutes, to which they, however, 
did not scruple to assign the name of Cajpe Orford. 

Vancouver also observed with attention the Deception Bay of 
Meares, which was represented on Spanish charts as the mouth of 
a river. Of this part of his voyage, he presents the following 
account in his journal, under date of 

" April 27th. — Noon brought us up with a conspicuous point 
of land, composed of a cluster of hummocks, moderately high, and 
projecting into the sea. On the south side of this promontory was 
the appearance of an inlet, or small river, the land not indicating it 
to be of any gi-eat extent, nor did it seem to be accessible for ves- 
sels of our burden, as the breakers extended from the above point, 
two or three miles into the ocean, until they joined those on the 
beach, nearly four leagues farther south. On reference to Mr. 
Meares's description of the coast south of this promontory, I was 
at first inclined to believe it was Cape Shoalwater ; but, on ascer- 
taining its latitude, I presumed it to be that which he calls Cape 
Disappointment, and the opening south of it Deception Bay. This 
cape we found to be in latitude of 46 degrees 19 minutes, longi- 
tude 236 degrees 6 minutes [east]. The sea had now changed 
from its natural to river-colored water, the probable consequence 
of some streams falling into the bay, or into the opening north of 
it, through the low land. Not considering this opening worthy of 
more attention, I continued our pursuit to the north-west, being 
desirous to embrace the advantages of the now prevailing breeze and 
pleasant weather, so favorable to an examination of the coasts." 



1792.] VANCOUVER MEETS GRAY NEAR THE STRAIT OF FUCA. 233 

Vancouver accordingly sailed onwards, to the entrance of the 
Strait of Fuca, which he was eager to explore ; having, as he 
believed, ascertained that " the several large rivers and capacious 
inlets, that have been described as discharging their contents into 
the Pacific, between the 40th and the 48th degrees of north lati- 
tude, were reduced to brooks insufficient for our vessels to navigate, 
or to bays inaccessible as harbors for refitting." Again he says, 
" Considering ourselves now on the point of commencing an exami- 
nation of an entirely new region, I cannot take leave of the coast 
already known, without obtruding a short remark on that part of 
the continent, comprehending a space of nearly two hundred and 
fifteen leagues, on which our inquiries had been lately employed, 
under the most fortunate and favorable circumstances of wind and 
weather. So minutely has this extensive coast been inspected, that the 
surf has been constantly seen to break on its shores from the mast- 
head ; and it was but in a few small intervals only where our 
distance precluded its being visible from the deck. Whenever the 
weather prevented our making free with the shore, or on our haul- 
ing oflf for the night, the return of fine weather and of daylight 
uniformly brought us, if not to the identical spot we had departed 
from, at least within a few miles of it, and never beyond the 
northern limits of the coast which we had previously seen. An 
examination so directed, and circumstances happily concurring to 
permit its being so executed, afforded the most complete opportunity 
of determining its various turnings and windings, as also the position 
of all its conspicuous points, ascertained by meridional altitudes for 
the latitude, and observations for the chronometer, which we had the 
good fortune to make constantly once, and in general twice, every 
day, the preceding one only excepted. It must be considered a very 
singular circumstance, that, in so great an extent of sea-coast, we 
should not until noio have seen the appearance of any opening in its shore 
which presented any certain prospect of affording a shelter, the whole 
coast forming one compact and nearly straight barrier against the sea.'* 

On the same day, the 29th of April, 1792, Vancouver writes in 
his journal, '' At four o'clock, a sail was discovered to the westward, 
standing in shore. This was a very great novelty, not having seen 
any vessel but our consort during the last eight months. She soon 
hoisted American colors, and fired a gun to leeward. At six we 
spoke her; she proved to be the ship Columbia, commanded by 
Captain Robert Gray, belonging to Boston, whence she had been 
absent nineteen months. Having little doubt of his being the same 
30 



*234 gray's account of his discoveries. [1792. 

person who had formerly commanded the sloop Washington, I 
desired he would bring to, and sent Mr. Puget and Mr. Menzies on 
board, to acquire such information as might be serviceable in our 
future operations. On the return of the boat, we found our con- 
jectures had not been ill grounded ; that this was the same gentle- 
man who had commanded the sloop Washington, at the time, we 
are informed, she had made a very singular voyage behind Nootka. 
It was not a little remarkable, that, on our approach to the entrance 
of this inland sea, we should fall in with the identical person who, 
it was said, had sailed through it. His relation, however, differed 
very materially from that published in England. It is not possible 
to conceive any one to be more astonished than was Mr. Gray, on 
his being made acquainted that his authority had been quoted, and 
the track pointed out that he had been said to have made in the 
sloop Washington ; in contradiction to which, he assured the of- 
ficers that he had penetrated only fifty miles into the straits in 
question, in an east-south-east direction ; that he found the passage 
five leagues wide, and that he understood from the natives that the 
opening extended a considerable distance to the northward ; that 
this was all the information he had acquired respecting this inland 
sea, and that he returned into the ocean by the same way he had 
entered at. The inlet he supposed to be the same that De Fuca 
had discovered, which opinion seemed to be universally received by 
all the modern visitors. He likewise informed them of his having 
been off the mouth of a river, in the latitude of 46 degrees 10 
minutes, where the outset or reflux was so strong as to prevent his 
entering for nine days. This was probably the opening passed by 
us on the forenoon of the 27th, and was apparently inaccessible, 
not from the current, but from the breakers that extended across it. 
He had also entered another inlet to the northward, in latitude of 
54^ degrees, in which he had sailed to the latitude of 56 degrees, 
without discovering its termination. The south point of entrance 
into De Fuca's Straits he stated to be in 49 degrees 24 minutes ; 
and he conceived our distance from it to be about eight leagues. 
The last winter he had spent in Port Cox, or, as the natives call it, 
Clyoquot, from whence he had sailed but a few days," &.c. 

The part of this account relating to the Strait of Fuca appears 
to have been received with much satisfaction by Vancouver, as it 
seemed to assure him that he had not been anticipated in the 
exploration of that passage ; to Gray's statement of his discoverv of 
a river emptying into the Pacific, in the latitude of 46 degrees 10 



1792.] GRAjr's ACCOUNT OF HIS DISCOVERIES. 235 

minutes, he gave little, or rather no credit, being content with his 
own examination of that part of the coast. On the day after his 
meeting with the Columbia, he writes, "The river mentioned by 
Mr. Gray should, from the latitude he assigned to it, have existence 
in the bay south of Cape Disappointment. This we passed in the 
forenoon of the 27th ; and, as I then observed, if any inlet or river 
should be found, it must be a very intricate one, and inaccessible to 
vessels of our burden, owing to the reefs' and broken water, which 
then appeared in its neighborhood. Mr. Gray stated that he had 
been several days attempting to enter it, which, at length, he was, 
unable to effect, in consequence of a very strong outset. This is 
a phenomenon difficult to account for, as, in most cases where there 
are outsets of such strength on a sea-coast, there are corresponding 
tides setting in. Be that, however, as it may, / was thoroughly 
convinced, as were also most persons of observation on board, that 
we could not possibly have passed any safe navigable opening, harbor, 
or place of security for shipping, on this coast, from Cape Mendocino 
to the promontory of Classet, [Cape Flattery, at the entrance of the 
Strait of Fuca ;] nor had we any reason to alter our opinions, 
notwithstanding that theoretical geographers have thought proper 
to assert in that space the existence of arms of the ocean commu- 
nicating with a mediterranean sea, and extensive rivers with safe 
and convenient ports." 

Having thus recorded his convictions, the British navigator 
proceeded to survey the Strait of Fuca ; whilst the American fur 
trader sailed towards the mouth of the river, into which he resolved, 
if possible, to effect an entrance. 

After parting with the English ships, Gray sailed along the coast 
of the continent to the south, and, on the 7th of May, he " saw 
an entrance which had a very good appearance of a harbor," in the 
latitude of 46 degrees 58 minutes. Passing through this entrance, 
he found himself in a bay " well sheltered from the sea by long 
sand-bars and spits," where he remained at anchor three days, 
engaged in trading with the natives ; and he then resumed his 
voyage, bestowing on the place thus discovered the name of Bul- 
finch's Harbor, in honor of one of the owners of his ship. 

At daybreak on the 11th, after leaving Bulfinch's Harbor, Gray 
observed " the entrance of his desired port, bearing east-south-east, 
distant six leagues ; " and running into it, with all sails set, between 
the breakers, (which Meares and Vancouver pronounce impassable,) 
he anchored, at one o'clock, ''in a large river of fresh water,'' ten 



236 WHO DISCOVERED THE COLUMBIA ? [1792. 

miles above its mouth. At this spot he remained three days, en- 
gaged in trading and filUng his casks with water, and then sailed 
up the river about twelve or fifteen miles along its northern shore ; 
where, finding that he could proceed no farther, from having " taken 
the wrong channel," he again came to anchor. During the week 
which followed, he made several attempts to quit the river, but 
was constantly baffled, until, at length, on the 20th, he crossed the 
bar at the mouth, by beating over it with a westerly wind, and 
regained the Pacific* 

On leaving the river. Gray gave to it the name of his ship — the 
Columbia — which it still bears ; though attempts are made to fix 
upon it that of Oregon, on the strength of the accounts whicli 
Carver pretended to have collected, in 1766, among the Indians of 
the Upper Mississippi, respecting a River Oregon, rising near Lake 
Superior, and emptying into the Strait of Anian.-f The extremity 
of the sand-bank, projecting into the sea on the south side of its en- 
trance, was called by Gray Point Adams ; and he assigned the name 
of Cape Hancock to the opposite promontory, on the north side, be- 
ing ignorant that Meares had already called it Cape Disappointment, 
in token of the unsuccessful result of his search for the river. 

The principal circumstances relating to the discovery of this 
river, the greatest which enters the Pacific from America, have 
now been fairly presented. It has been shown — that the opening 
through which its waters are discharged into the ocean was first 
seen in August, 1776, by the Spanish navigator Heceta,J and was 
distinguished on Spanish charts, within the thirteen years next 
following, as the mouth of the River San Rogue — that it was 
examined in July, 1788, by Meares,*§> who quitted it with the con- 
viction that no river existed there — and that this opinion of 
Meares was subscribed, without qualification, by Vancouver, after he 
had minutely examined that coast, " imder the most favorable con- 
ditions of ivind and iveather,^^ and notwithstanding the assurances 
of Gray to the contrary. Had Gray, after parting with the English 
ships, not returned to the river, and ascended it as he did, there is 
every reason to believe that it would have long remained unknown ; 
for the assertions of Vancouver that no opening, harbor, or place of 
refuge for vessels, was to be found betivcen Cape Mendocino and the 

* See the extract from the log-book of the Columbia, containing the account of 
the entrance of Gray into the river, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter 
part of this volume, under the letter E, No. 2. 

t See p. 142. % See p. 120. § See p. 177. 



1792.] WHO DISCOVERED THE COLUMBIA? 237 

Strait of Fuca, and that this part of the coast formed one compact, 
solid, and nearly straight, barrier against the sea, would have served 
completely to overthrow the evidence of the American fur trader, 
and to prevent any further attempts to examine those shores, or 
even to approach them.* 

From the mouth of the Columbia River, Gray sailed to tjie east 
coast of Queen Charlotte's Island, near which his ship struck on a 
rock, and was so much injured that she was with difficulty kept 
afloat until she reached Nootka Sound, where the damage was 
repaired. The Hope also arrived at Nootka at this time, and 
Gray communicated the particulars of his recent discoveries to 
Ingraham, and to the Spanish commandant Quadra, to whom he 
also gave charts and descriptions of Bulfinch's Harbor, and of 
the mouth of the Columbia. On this occasion, moreover, the two 
American captains addressed to Quadra, at his request, a letter f 
containing a narrative of the transactions at Nootka in 1789, to 
which particular reference will be hereafter made. Having soon 
completed their business on the north-west coasts. Gray and Ingra- 
ham departed severally for Canton, in September, and thence they 
sailed to the United States. | 

* It was, nevertheless, insisted, on the part of the British government, in a discus- 
sion with the United States, in 1826, that the merit of discovermg the Columbia 
belongs to Meares! "that, in 1788, four years before Gray entered the mouth of 
the Columbia River, Mr. Meares, a lieutenant of the royal navy, who had been sent 
by the East India Company on a trading expedition to the north-west coast of 
America, had already minutely explored the coast from the 49th to the 54th degree 
of north latitude ; had taken formal possession of the Straits of De Fuca in the name 
of his sovereign ; had purchased land, trafficked and formed treaties with the natives ; 
and had actually entered the Bay of the Columbia, to the northern headland of 
which he gave the name of Cape Disappointment, a name which it bears to this 
day ; " and that " if any claim to these countries, as between Great Britain and the 
United States, is to be deduced from priority of the discovery, tlie above exposition 
of dates and facts suffices to establish that claim in favor of Great Britain, on a basis 
too firm to be shaken. It must indeed be admitted," continue the British plenipo- 
tentiaries, " that Mr. Gray, finding himself in the bay formed by the discharge of 
the waters of the Columbia into the Pacific, ?ms the first to ascrrtain that this hny 
formed the outlet of a great river — a discovery which had escaped Lieutenant Meares, 
vhen, in 1788, four years before, he entered the same bay." The truth in the last of 
these assertions atones for the errors in those which precede, and coxmtcracts the 
impression which the whole was intended to produce. — See the statement presented 
by Messrs. Huskisson and Addington to Mr. Gallatin, in 1826, among the Proofs 
and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter G. 

t Sec Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter C. 

t Ingraham subsequently entered the navy of the United States as a lieutenant, 
and was one of the officers of the ill-fated brig Pickering, of which nothing was ever 
heard, after her departure from the Delaware in August, 1800. Gray continued to 
command trading vessels from Boston until 1800, about which time he died. 



238 SURVEY OF ADMIRALTY INLET. [1792. 

In the mean time, the survey of the Strait of Fuca had been 
completed. 

Vancouver and Broughton took their departure on the 1st of 
May, as already mentioned, from Cape Flattery, the point at the 
south side of the entrance of the Strait, and thence sailed slowly 
along the coast eastward, about a hundred miles, to its extremity 
in that direction, where they entered a harbor called by them Port 
Discovery, the same which had, in 1790, received from duimper 
the name of Port Qiiadra. A little beyond this harbor, they found 
another opening in the coast towards the south, corresponding with 
that called by Quimper Cajial de Caamano, through which they 
entered an extensive arm of the sea, with several branches, stretch- 
ing in various southerly directions, to the distance of more than a 
hundred miles from the strait. This great arm, called Admiralty 
Inlet, with its principal branches, Hood's Canal on the west, Pos- 
session Sound on the east, and Puget's Sound, the southernmost, 
were carefully surveyed to their respective terminations ; and the 
navigators, having thus ascertained that no passage through the con- 
tinent was to be effected by those channels, returned to the strait. 
Of the beauty and apparent fertility of the country surrounding this 
arm of the sea, Vancouver speaks in glowing terms. The surface 
near the shores was generally undulating, presenting a succession 
of meadows, lawns, and hillocks, many of which were covered 
with noble forests of oak ; " the soil principally consisted of a rich, 
black, vegetable mould, lying on a sandy or clayey substratum ; the 
grass, of excellent quality, grew to the height of three feet, and the 
ferns, w^hich, in the sandy soils, occupied the clear spots, were 
nearly twice as high." In the distance, on the east, the south, and 
the west, the view was bounded by lofty mountains, to the stupen- 
dous peaks of which Vancouver assigned the names of British 
admirals and diplomatists. 

After completing this part of their survey, the English landed on 
the shore of Possession Sound, and celebrated the birthday of their 
sovereign, the 4th of June, by taking possession, in his name, and 
" with the usual formalities, of all that part of New Albion, from 
the latitude of 39 degrees 20 minutes south, and longitude 236 
degrees 26 minutes east, to the entrance of the inlet of the sea, 
said to be the supposed Strait of Juan de Fuca, as also of all the 
coasts, islands, &c., within the said strait, and both its shores ; " to 
which region they gave the appellation of Neio Georgia. With 
regard to this ceremony, it may be observed, that, although naval 



1792.] VANCOUVER MEETS GALIANO AND VALDES. 239 

officers are not expected to be minutely acquainted with diplomatic 
affairs, yet Captain Vancouver, who was sent to the North Pacific 
as commissioner to execute the convention of October, 1790, should 
have recollected that, by the stipulations of that convention, every 
fart of the north-ivest coast of America ivas rendered free and open 
for trade or settlement to Spanish as ivcll as British subjects; and 
that, consequently, no claim of sovereignty, on the part of either of 
those nations, could be valid. It may seem pedantic, if not unjust, 
to make this remark with regard to what may have been nothing 
more than the result of an exuberance of loyal feeling in the officers 
and crews of the vessels ; but this taking possession by Vancouver 
has been since gravely adduced, by the representatives of the British 
government, in support of its claims to the dominion of the terri- 
tories above mentioned.* 

On returning to the Strait of Fuca, the English examined several 
other passages opening into it, some of which were found to ter- 
minate in the land, at short distances from their mouths, and others 
to be channels between islands. Through one of these latter chan- 
nels, opening immediately opposite the entrance of Admiralty Inlet, 
they passed into a long and wide gulf, extending north-westward ; 
and, after proceeding a few miles within it, they, on the 23d of June, 
unexpectedly met the Spanish schooners Sutil and Mexicana,f com- 
manded by Lieutenants Galiano and Valdes, which had left Nootka 
on the 4th of the month, and had advanced thus far along the 
northern shore of the strait. The meeting was, doubtless, vexatious 
to the commanders of both the parties, each being naturally anxious 
to secure to himself all the merit which might be acquired by deter- 
mining the character of this famous arm of the sea : they, however, 
received and treated each other with the utmost civility, mutually 
exhibiting their charts and journals, and comparing their obser- 
vations ; and, having agreed to unite their labors, they remained to- 
gether three weeks. During this time, they surveyed the shores of 
the great gulf above mentioned, called by the Spaniards Canal del 
Rosario, and by the English the Gulf of Georgia, which extended 

* See statement of the British commissioners, among tlio Proofs and Illustrations, 
in the latter part of this volume, under the letter G. 

t Vancouver describes these vessels as " each about forty-five tons burden, mount- 
ing two brass guns, and navigated by twent3^-four men ; bearing one lieutenant, with- 
out a single inferior officer. Their apartments just allowed room for sleeping-places 
on each side, with a table in the intermediate space, at which four persons could with 
difficulty sit ; and they were, in all other respects, the most ill-calculated and unfit 
vessels that could possibly be imagined for such an expedition." 



240 PASSAGE THROUGH THE STRAIT OF FUCA. [1792. 

north-westward as far as the 50th degree of latitude ; and then, on 
the 13th of July, the English took leave of their Spanish friends, 
who, from want of force, were unable to keep up with them. 

On parting with the Spaniards, the English entered a passage, 
named by them Johnstone's Strait, leading from the north-west ex- 
tremity of the gulf; and after a long and difficult navigation through 
it, they, on the 10th of August, emerged into the Pacific at Queen 
Charlotte's Sound, about one hundred miles north of Nootka. 
Having been, from the commencement, persuaded that the land on 
the western side of the strait was an island, they had devoted their 
attention particularly to the eastern shores, through which a passage 
might be found to Hudson's Bay or the Arctic Sea ; but their search 
proved vain, and, after tracing to their terminations in the interior a 
number of long and intricate inlets, they became convinced that 
the continent extended uninterruptedly northward, at least to the 
51st parallel of latitude. Immediately on entering the Pacific, the 
Discovery struck on a rock, and scarcely had she been got oflf ere 
a similar misfortune befell the Chatham ; both vessels, however, 
escaped with little injury, and they soon after arrived at Nootka 
Sound. Galiano and Valdes also passed through the strait by the 
same route, and reached Nootka in safety on the 4th of September. 

After the arrival of the Sutil and Mexicana at Nootka, Vancouver 
and the Spanish commander, Quadra, compared together the notes 
and charts of the two voyages through the Strait of Fuca ; and it 
was agreed between them, that the great island which that arm of 
the sea separated from the American continent should bear the 
names of them both. It has, in consequence, ever since been dis- 
tinguished on maps by the long and inconvenient appellation of 
Island of (Quadra and Vancouver, which it will scarcely be allowed 
to retain, when that part of the world shall be occupied by a civil- 
ized people. 

This survey of the Strait of Fuca was conducted in the most 
complete and effectual manner possible by Vancouver, whose ac- 
count of it, filling a large portion of his journal, together with his 
charts, aflford unequivocal testimony of the skill and perseverance of 
the British navigators. Galiano and Valdes seem also to have done 
as much as could have been expected, considering the smallness 
of their force and the miserable scale of their equipments. Had 
they not met the British ships, they would, doubtless, have found 
their way through the strait ; but they could never have made even 
a tolerable survey of it, as they must have left a number of passages 



1792.] NEGOTIATIONS AT NOOTKA. 241 

unexplored ; and the world would, probably, never have received 
any detailed report of their operations.* 

Before the arrival of these vessels at Nootka Sound, Captain 
Coamano returned from his search for the Rio de Reyes of Ad- 
miral Fonte, in which he had spent two months. During this 
period, he entered many of the openings in the coasts north and 
north-east of Queen Charlotte's Island, between the 53d and the 
56th parallels of latitude ; some of which were found to be the 
mouths of bays, or of inlets running far inland, and others to be 
channels separating islands. He appears to have displayed much 
skill and industry in his examinations, as Vancouver indirectly 
testifies in his narrative : but he eftected no discoveries calculated 
to throw much light on the geography of that part of the coast ; 
and his labors were productive of advantage only in so far as they 
served to facilitate the movements of the English navigator, to 
whom his charts and journals were exhibited at Nootka. 

At Nootka, Vancouver found the store-ship Daedalus, which 
brought the instructions from the British government for his con- 
duct as commissioner. She left England in the autumn of 1791, 
under the command of Lieutenant Hergest ; and, passing around 
Cape Horn, she, in the latter part of March, 1792, fell in with the 

* The voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana was the last made by the Spaniards in 
the North Pacific Ocean, for the purposes of discovery ; and the only one, since that 
of Vizcaino, of which an authentic account has been given to the world, with the 
sanction of the Spanish government. The Journal of Galiano and Valdes was pub- 
lished at Madrid in 1802, hy order of the king, with, an Introduction, often cited in 
the preceding pages, including a historical sketch of the exploring voyages of the 
Spaniards on the coasts of America, north-west of Mexico. This Introduction is the 
only valuable part of the work ; the meagre and uninteresting details of the Journal 
having been superseded by the full and luminous descriptions of Vancouver : it 
was intended — as a defence of the rights of Spain to the north-west portion of 
America, which were supposed to be endangered since the cession of Louisiana to 
France — as a vindication of the claims of Spanish navigators to tlic merit of dis- 
covering those regions, which the British were endeavoring to monopolize — and as a 
reply to the charges, insinuations, and sarcasms, against the intelligence, liberality, 
and good faith, of the Spanish government and nation, brought forward by Fleurieu. 
It was compiled chiefly from the original journals and other documents, in the 
archives of the Council of the Indies, relative to tlie exploration of the North Pacific 
coasts ; and, in this manner, many curious if not important facts were communi- 
cated, which might otherwise have remained forever buried. It is, however, to be 
regretted that the author should have disfigured his work — as he has in every part in 
which the honor or interests of Spain are concerned — by gross and palpable misstate- 
ments of circumstances, respecting which he undoubtedly possessed the means of 
arriving at the truth. It may, perhaps, be considered a sufficient apology for him, 
that his book was published by the Spanish government, at Madrid, in 1802, as we 
know not what changes may have been made in it by insertions, suppressions, and 
alterations, after it left his hands. 

31 



242 LETTER OF GRAY AND INGRAM AM. [1792. 

islands in the centre of the Pacific, north of the Marquesas, which 
had been discovered by Ingraham in April of the preceding year. 
Sailing thence, she reached Woahoo, one of the Sandwich Islands, 
where Lieutenant Hergest and Mr. Gooch, the astronomer, were 
murdered by the natives, on the 11th of May; after which she 
came to Nootka Sound, under the command of Lieutenant New. 
Vancouver gave the name of Hergesfs Islands to the group visited 
by the Djedalus, as above mentioned ; and so they are called in his 
chart, although, as he says in his journal, he had been informed 
that they had been previously discovered and landed on by some of the 
American traders. 

For his conduct as commissioner, Vancouver was referred by his 
instructions to the convention of October, 1790, and to a letter 
brought by the Daedalus from count de Florida Blanca, the Spanish 
minister of state, addressed to the commandant of the port of San 
Lorenzo of Nootka, ordering that officer, in conformity with the 
first article of the convention, to put his Britannic majesty's com- 
missioner in possession of the buildings and districts, or parcels of 
land, which were occupied by his subjects in April, 1789, as well 
in the port of Nootka as in the other, said to be called Port Cox, 
and to be situated about sixteen leagues farther southward. A copy 
of this order had been given to Q,uadra, on his departure from 
Mexico ; but it does not appear that either of the commissioners 
was furnished by his government with any evidence to assist him in 
ascertaining precisely what lands were to be restored, or for what 
buildings indemnification was to be made by the Spaniards. 

In order to supply this want of information. Quadra had, imme- 
diately on arriving at Nootka, made inquiries on the subject of 
Maquinna and other chiefs of the surrounding tribes ; all of whom, 
without hesitation, denied that any lands had been purchased, or 
any houses had been built there, by the English at any time. As 
the testimony of the savage chiefs could not, however, be of much 
value alone, he had next addressed his inquiries to Captains Gray 
and Ingraham, who arrived at Nootka in July, as already stated, 
and who had witnessed the proceedings at that place in 1789, when 
the former commanded the Washington, and the latter was first 
mate of the Columbia ; and they, in answer, sent a letter, dated 
August 2d, containing a clear and particular statement of all the 
circumstances connected with the occupation of Nootka, and the 
seizure of the vessels by Martinez. With regard to the particular 
points in question, they declare unequivocally that, although they 



1792.] PROPOSITIONS OF (QUADRA. 243 

had been in habits of constant intercourse with Maquinna and his 
people for nine months, they had never heard of any purchase of 
lands on that coast by British subjects ; and that the only building 
seen by them, when they reached the sound in September, 1789, 
was a rude hut, made by the Indians, which had been destroyed 
long before the arrival of the Spaniards.* These statements were, 
in all respects, confirmed by Viana, the Portuguese, who had been 
the captain of the Iphigenia in 1788 and 1789, and who was then 
with his vessel at Nootka ; and the Spanish commissioner thereupon 
considered himself authorized to assume that no lands ivere to be 
restored, and no buildings to be replaced or paid for by Spain. 

A communication to this effect, with copies of the letters of Gray 
and Ingraham and Viana, was, accordingly, addressed by Quadra 
to Vancouver, on the arrival of the latter at Nootka. The Spanish 
commissioner, however, at the same time offered, with the view of 
removing all causes of disagreement between the two nations, to 
surrender to the British the small spot of ground on the shore of 
Friendly Cove, which had been temporariij- occupied by Meares and 
his people in 1788; to give up, Tor their use, the houses and cul- 
tivated lands of the Spaniards near that place ; and to retire with 
all his forces to Port Nufiez Gaona, in the Strait of Fuca, (where 
an establishment had been begun by Fidalgo,) until the two govern- 
ments should determine further on the matter: with the under- 
standing, nevertheless, that this cession was not to be considered as 
affecting the rights of his Catholic majesty to the dominion of the 
territory, and that Nootka was to be regarded as the most northern 
settlement of the Spaniards, to whom the whole coast lying south 
of it, and the adjacent country, was to be acknowledged to belong 
exclusively. 

Vancouver, on the other hand, had thought proper to construe 
the first article of the convention of 1790 as giving to his country- 
men possession of the whole territory surrounding JSootlca and Clyo- 
quot ; and he therefore refused to receive what was offered by 
Quadra, declaring, with regard to the concluding part of the 
Spaniard's proposition, that he was not authorized to enter into any 
discussion as to the rights or claims of the respective nations. In 
this conviction he was supported by the evidence of Robert Duffin, 
the former mate of the Argonaut, who happened to arrive at Nootka 
while the negotiation was in progress. This person testified that 

* See letter of Gray and Ingraham to Quadra, among the Proofs and Illustrations, 
in the latter part of this volume, under the letter D. 



244 duffin's evidence. [1792. 

he had accompanied Mr. Meares to Nootka in 1788, with his two 
vessels, which sailed under Portuguese colors and under the name 
of a Portuguese merchant, for the purpose of avoiding certain 
heavy duties at Macao, but were, notwithstanding, " entirely British 
property, and ivholly navigated by the subjects of his Britannic 
majesty ; " that he had himself been present when Mr. Meares 
purchased " from the two chiefs, Maquinna and Callicum, the whole 
of the land that forms Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound, in his Bri- 
tannic majesty's name," for some sheets of copper and trifling 
articles ; that the natives were perfectly satisfied, and, with the 
chiefs, did homage to Mr. Meares as sovereign ; that the British flag 
— not the Portuguese — was displayed on shore on that occasion; 
that Mr. Meares caused a house to be erected on a convenient spot, 
containing three bed-chambers, with a mess-room for the officers 
and proper apartments for the men, " surrounded by several out- 
houses and sheds for the artificers to work in, all of which he left 
in good repair, under the care of Maquinna and Callicum, until he, 
or some of his associates, should return ; that he, Duffin, was not 
at Nootka when Martinez arrived there, but he understood no vestige 
of the house remained at that thne ; and, on his return thither in 
July, 1789, he found the Cove occupied by the subjects of his 
Catholic majesty, and on the spot on which the house had stood 
were the tents and houses of some of the people of the ship 
Columbia. Upon the streigth of this testimony, Vancouver pro- 
nounced the declarations of Messrs. Gray and Ingraham to be en- 
tirely false ; and he takes pains, in several parts of his work, to 
animadvert, in severe terms, on what he is pleased to call " the 
wilful misrepresentations of the Americans, to the prejudice of 
British subjects." 

On the points to which Duffin's statement relates, it is unneces- 
sary to add any thing to what has been already said. The evidence 
is presented to us by Vancouver, in the form of an abstract, of the 
correctness of which, as well as of the candor of that officer, we 
may be enabled to form an estimate, by comparing his abstract of 
the letter from Gray and Ingraham to Quadra, with the letter itself. 
It will be thus seen, that the British commander has, most unfairly, 
garbled the testimony of the American traders, by suppressing or 
altering every part of it which could tend to place his countrymen, 
or their cause, in an unfavorable light, or to excuse the conduct of 
the Spaniards towards them. His bitterness towards the citizens 
of the United States, on this occasion, may, perhaps, be attributed 



1792.] NEGOTIATION SUSPENDED. 245 

to the circumstance, that, on his arrival at Nootka, he learned the 
complete success of Gray in finding a large river, and a secure 
harbor, on a coast which he had himself explored in vain with the 
same objects. 

The correspondence between the two commissioners was con- 
tinued for some weeks, at the end of which, finding it impossible 
to effect any definitive arrangement, they agreed to submit the 
matter, with all the additional evi ience obtained by both parties, to 
their respective governments, and to await further orders ; Nootka 
being, in the mean time, considered a Spanish port.* Vancouver, 

* The preceding sketch of the negotiation between Vancouver and Quadra is 
derived from the Journals of Vancouver, Gahano and Valdes, and Ingraham. The 
following summary account of the business, extracted from Ingraliam's Journal, was 
drawn up, at his request, by Mr. Howel, the supercargo of the American brig Mar- 
garet, who acted as translator for Quadra, and saw the whole of the correspondence. 
"The indefinite mode of expression adopted by Messrs. Fitzherbert and Florida 
Blanca did not affix any boundaries to the cession expected by Great Britain : what 
the buildings were, or what was the extent of the tract of land to be restored, the 
plenipotentiaries did not think proper to determine. Don Juan Francisco, having 
no better guide, collected the best evidence he could procure, and that could enable 
him to determine what were the lands and buildings of which the British subjects 
were dispossessed, and which the tenor of the first article of the convention alone 
authorized him to restore. The result of this investigation, in which he was much 
aided by your communication, supported by the uniform declarations of Maquinna 
and his tribe, sufficiently evinced that the tract was a small corner of Friendly Cove, 
and, to use the words of Captain Vancouver, little more than a hundred yards in ex- 
tent any way; and the buildings, according to your information, dwindled to one 
hut. Seiior Quadra, having ascertained the limits usually occupied by Mr. Meares^ 
or his servants, was ever ready to deliver it, in behalf of his Catholic majesty, to any 
envoy from the British court. Captain Vancouver arrived at Nootka Sound in the 
latter end of August ; and Sefior Quadra wrote to him on the subject of their re- 
spective orders, and enclosed your letter, together with one from a Captain Viana, a 
Portuguese, who passed as captain of the Iphigenia, when she was detained by the 
Spaniards. Don Juan Francisco, in his letter, avowed his readiness to put Captain 
Vancouver in possession of the tract of land where Mr. Meares's house once stood, 
which alone could be that ceded to Great Britain by the convention. Senor Quadra 
offered, likewise, to leave for his accommodation all the houses, gardens, &c., which 
had been made at the expense of his Catholic majesty, as he intended leaving the 
port immediately. In the same letter, he tendered Captain Vancouver offers of 
every service and assistance which hospitality or benevolence could dictate. Cap- 
tain Vancouver, in reply, gratefully acknowledged the intended favors, but entirely 
dissented from the boundaries affixed by Seiior Quadra to the tract of land, of which 
he was to receive the possession and property ; and, in pursuance of his directions, 
interpreted the first article as a cession of this port, viz., Nootha Sound, in toio, to- 
gether tcUh. Clyoquot, or Port Cox. He aisclaimed all retrospective discussion of the 
rights, pretensions, &c., of the two courts, and also of the actual possessions of British 
subjects in Nootka Sound, deeming it irrelevant to the business he was authorized 
to transact, and only to be settled by the respective monarchs. The letters which 
followed on both sides were merely a reiteration of the foregomg proposals and 
demands. Senor Quadra invited to a discussion of the boundaries, tSrc, and sup- 



246 SURVEY OF bulfinch's harbor. [1792. 

accordingly, despatched Lieutenant Mudge, by way of China, to 
England, with communications for his government ; and he then 
prepared for his own departure towards the south, being resolved to 
examine the Columbia River and Bulfinch's Harbor, of which he 
had received from Quadra copies of the charts given to that officer 
by Gray. 

Vancouver sailed from Nootka, with his three vessels, on the 13th 
of October, and, on the 18th, he was opposite Bulfinch's Harbor, 
to examine which he detached Lieutenant Whidbey, in the Daeda- 
lus, while he himself proceded with the other vessels to the mouth 
of the Columbia. Into that river Broughton penetrated, in the 
Chatham, on the 20th : the Discovery was unable to pass the bar 
at the mouth ; and Vancouver, being persuaded that the stream was 
inaccessible to large ships, " except in very fine weather, with 
moderate winds, and a smooth sea," sailed to the Bay of San 
Francisco, where he had ordered the other officers to join him in 
case of separation. In December following, the whole squadron 
was reunited at Monterey, where Whidbey and Broughton pre- 
sented the reports of their observations. 

Whidbey's account of Bulfinch's Harbor was less favorable than 
Gray's ; from both, however, it appears that the place possesses 
advantages which must render it important, whenever the surround- 
ing region becomes settled. It affords a safe retreat for small 
vessels, and there are several spots on its shore where boats may 
land without difficulty : moreover, it is the only harbor on the coast, 
between Cape Mendocino and the Strait of Fuca, except the mouth 
of the Columbia ; and, under such circumstances, labor and inge- 
nuity will certainly be employed to correct and improve what nature 
has offijred. Upon the strength of this survey, the place has been 
frequently distinguished on British, and even on American maps, 
as Whidbei/s Harbor, although Vancouver himself has not pre- 
tended to withhold from Gray the merit of discovering it. 

Broughton, as before mentioned, entered the Columbia with the 



ported his evidence with well-grounded reasoning; yet Captain Vancouver steadily 
adhered to the demands he first made, and refused every kind of discussion. The 
definitive letter from Seiior Quadra was transmitted on the 15th of September ; but, 
it being of the same nature with the preceding ones, Captain Vancouver only re- 
plied by a repetition of his former avowal, and informing the Spanish connuandant 
that he could receive, on the part of his master, the king of Britain, no other terri- 
tories than those he had pointed out in his other letters, with which if Serior Quadra 
did not comply, he must retain them for his Catholic majesty, until the respective 
courts should determine what further proceedings they might deem necessary." 



1792.] BROUGHTON SURVEYS THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 247 

Chatham, on the 20th of October ; and he there, to his surprise, 
found lying at anchor the brig Jenny, from Bristol, which had sailed 
from Nootka Sound a few days previous. Scarcely had the Chat- 
ham etfected an entrance ere she ran aground ; and the channel 
proved to be so intricate, that Brougiiton determined to leave her 
about four miles from the mouth, and to proceed up the stream in 
his cutter. A short account of his survey will be sufficient, as it 
would be unnecessary to present an abridgment of the long and 
minute description given in the journal of Vancouver. 

The portion of the Columbia near the sea was found by Brough- 
ton to be about seven miles in width ; its depth varied from two 
fathoms to eight, and it was crossed in every direction by shoals, 
which must always render the navigation difficult, even by small 
vessels. Higher up, the stream became narrower, and, at the 
distance of twenty-five miles from its mouth, its breadth did not 
exceed a thousand yards. These circumstances were considered by 
Broughton and Vancouver as authorizing them to assume that the 
true entrance of the river was at the last-mentioned point, and that 
the waters between it and the ocean constituted an inlet or sound.* 
From the extremity of this inlet, the party rowed eighty miles up 
the river, in a south-west course, to a bend, where, the current 
being so rapid as to prevent them from advancing without great 
labor, they abandoned the survey, and returned to their vessel. 
The angle of land around which the river flowed, and where their 
progress was arrested, received the appellation of Point Vancouver ; 
the part of the inlet where the ship Columbia lay at anchor during 
her visit, was called Gray^s Bay ; and that immediately within Cape 
Disappointment was named Baker^s Bay, in compliment to the 
captain of the Jenny. On the 10th of November, the Chatham 

* " 1 shall conclude this account of the Columbia River by a few short remarks 
that Mr. Broughton made in the course of its survey, in his ow^n words. ' The 
discovery of this river, we were given to understand, is claimed by the Spaniards, 
who called it Entrada dc Ceta, after the commander of the vessel who is said to be its 
first discoverer, but who never entered it; he places it in 46 degrees north latitude. 
It is tlie same opening that Mr. Gray stated to us, in the spring, he had been nine 
days off, the former year, but could not get in, in consequence of the outsetting 
current ; that, in the course of the late summer, he had, however, entered the river, 
or rather the sound, and had named it after the ship he then commanded. The ex- 
tent Mr. Gray became acquainted with on that occasion is no farther than what I 
have called Gray's Bay, not more than fifteen miles from Cape Disappointment, 
though, according to Mr. Gray's sketch, it measures thirty-six miles. By his calcu- 
lation, its entrance lies in latitude 46 degrees 10 minutes, longitude 237 degrees 18 
minutes, differing materially, in these respects, from our observations.' " — Vancou- 
ver, vol. ii. p. 74. 



248 UNWOBTHVr conduct of VANCOUVER. [1792. 

quitted the Columbia, in company with the Jenny, and arrived at 
Port San Francisco before the end of the month. 

The distinction which Vancouver and Broughton have thus en- 
deavored to estabhsh between the upper and the lower portions of 
the Columbia, is entirely destitute of foundation, and at variance 
with the principles of our whole geographical nomenclature. Inlets 
and sounds are arms of the sea, running up into the land ; and their 
waters, being supplied from the sea, are necessarily salt : the waters 
of the Columbia are, on the contrary, generally fresh and potable 
within ten miles of the Pacific ; the volume and the overbearing 
force of the current being sufficient to prevent the farther ingress 
of the ocean. The question appears, at first, to be of no conse- 
quence : the following extract from Vancouver's journal will, how- 
ever, serve to show that the quibble was devised by the British 
navigators, with the unworthy object of depriving Gray of the 
merits of his discovery : " Previously to his [Broughton's] depart- 
ure, he formally took possession of the river, and the country in its 
vicinity, in his Britannic majesty's name, having every reason to 
believe that the subjects of no other civilized tiation or state had ever 
entered this river before. In this opinion he was confirmed by Mr. 
Gray^s sketch, in which it docs not appear that Mr. Gray either saw 
or ever ivas within five leagues of its entrance.''^ This unjust view 
has been adopted by the British government and writers, and also, 
doubtless from inadvertency, by some distinguished authors in the 
United States. It may be, indeed, considered fortunate for Gray, 
that, by communicating the particulars of his discoveries, as he did, 
to Quadra, he secured an unimpeachable witness in support of his 
claims ; had he not done so, the world would probably never have 
learned that a citizen of the United States was the first to enter the 
greatest river flowing from America into the Pacific, and to find the 
only safe harbor on the long line of coast between Port San Fran- 
cisco and the Strait of Fuca. 

At San Francisco and Monterey, Vancouver surveyed the bays, 
and examined the Spanish establishments, of which he presents 
minute and graphic descriptions in his narrative ; and he obtained 
satisfactory evidence that the presidio of San Francisco, situated 
near the entrance of the bay, in latitude of 37 degrees 48 minutes, 
tvas the northernmost spot, on the Pacific coast of America, occupied 
by the Spaniards previous to the mo7ith of May, 1789, and was, con- 
sequently, according to the convention of 1790, the northernmost 
spot on that coast over which Spain could exercise exclusive juris- 



1793.] EXECUTION OF MURDERERS AT WOAHOO. 249 

diction. At Monterey, the English commander again met and 
conferred with the Spanish commissioner Quadra ; and it was 
agreed between them, that Lieutenant Broughton should proceed 
to Europe, across Mexico, with further communications, for their 
respective courts, on the subject of the arrangement of the ques- 
tions at issue. These affairs having been concluded, the Daedalus 
was sent to New South Wales ; and Vancouver proceeded, with 
the Discovery and Chatham, the latter under Lieutenant Puget, to 
the Sandwich Islands, where they arrived in the middle of Feb- 
ruary, 1793. 

At Owyhee, the English ships were visited by Tamahamaha, 
who was, by this time, acknowledged as king of the island 
by all the other chiefs except Tamaahmoto, the murderer of the 
crew of the Fair American. Vancouver immediately recognized 
the authority ot Tamahamaha, to which he endeavored, but in vain, 
to induce Tamaahmoto to submit ; he then sailed to Mowee, where 
he succeeded in negotiating a peace between Titeree, king of that 
island, and the sovereign of Owyhee, and thence to Woahoo, where 
he superintended the trial and execution of three natives, who 
had been delivered up to him as the murderers of Hergest and 
Gooch, the officers of the Daedalus. The particulars of these 
judicial proceedings are detailed with precision by Vancouver, who 
seems to have been perfectly content with their regularity and 
correctness ; nevertheless, when Broughton visited the island, in 
1796, he was assured, as he says, "that the men who were exe- 
cuted alongside of the Discovery had not committed the murders, 
but were unfortunate beings whom the chief selected to satisfy 
Captain Vancouver." * This appears to be certain from subsequent 
accounts ; and it seems to be somewhat strange, that Vancouver 
should not have suspected it to have been the case, at the time of 
the trial. 

Having performed these acts of diplomacy and justice in the 
Sandwich Islands, Vancouver proceeded to the American coasts ; 
and, after examining the portion near Cape Mendocino, including 
the place called Port Trinidad by the Spaniards, in 1775, so as to 
connect his surveys north and south of that portion, he sailed to 
Nootka, where he arrived on the 20th of May, 1793. The remain- 
der of the warm season was passed by the British navigators in 
making a minute and laborious examination of the shores of the 

* Journal of a Voyage to the Pacific, from 1793 to 1797, by Captain Robert 
Broughton, p. 42. 

32 



250 PRETENDED CESSION OF OWYHEE TO GREAT BRITAIN. [1794. 

continent, and the islands in its vicinity, from the northern entrance 
of the Strait of Fuca, near the 51st degree of latitude, northward, 
as far as the 54th parallel ; tracing to their terminations, as in the 
preceding year, all the passages which appeared to run eastward, as 
well as many others, which were found to be channels separating 
islands from each other or from the main land. Several open- 
ings still remained unexplored beyond the 54th parallel ; but the 
weather became so stormy at the end of September, that the 
survey could no longer be continued with safety or advantage : 
Vancouver accordingly returned along the western side of Queen 
Charlotte's Island to Nootka, and thence took his departure for 
Port San Francisco, which he reached on the 19th of October. 

From Port San Francisco the British navigators sailed along the 
shores of California — which Vancouver takes care always to call 
New Albion — as far south as San Diego, near the 33d degree of 
latitude, visiting every important point on their way, and observing 
the coasts with great exactness ; and thence, in the middle of De- 
cember, they went to Owyhee, where they found that the supremacy 
of Tamahamaha was admitted, though with some qualifications, by 
the people and the other chiefs. Here Vancouver succeeded in 
effecting a reconciliation between the king and Tahowmannoo, 
his sultana, (since better known as Kaahumanu,) from whom he 
had been for some time separated on account of her open and 
repeated infidelities ; and he soon after gave further proof of his 
talents as negotiator, in a transaction the particulars of which do 
not appear to have been understood in the same light by both 
the parties. 

The navigator states that a strong disposition had been manifested 
by several chiefs, at the time of his first visit, to place their island 
under subjection to the British king, but that it had been opposed 
by other chiefs, on the ground that they should not surrender 
themselves to a superior foreign power, unless they were assured 
that they would thus be really protected against distant and 
neighboring enemies. At the time of his second visit, however, 
he found the disposition to submit much increased, and, as he says, 
*' Under a conviction of the importance of these islands to Great 
Britain, in the event of an extension of her commerce over the 
Pacific Ocean, and in return for the essential services we had 
derived from the excellent productions of the country, and the 
ready assistance of its inhabitants, I lost no opportunity for encour- 
aging their friendly dispositions toward us, notwithstanding the 



1794.] PRETENDED CESSION OF OWYHEE TO GREAT BRITAIN- 251 

disappointments they had met from the traders, for whose conduct 
I could invent no apology ; endeavoring to impress them with the 
idea that, on submitting to the authority and protection of a superior 
power, they might reasonably expect they would in future be less 
liable to such abuses." Acting under these views, he concihated 
Tamahamaha by building for him a small vessel, on which the 
guns taken from the schooner Fair American were mounted ; and, 
having induced all the principal chiefs to m'iet him on the shore 
near his ships, it was determined, at the assembly, that Owyhee 
should be ceded to his Britannic majesty ; it being, however, 
clearly understood, thai no interference was to take place in the 
religion, government, and domestic economy, of the island — '^ that 
Tamahamaha, the chiefs, and priests, tvere to continue, as usual, to 
officiate, with the same authority as before, in their respective stations, 
and that no alteration in those particulars was in any degree thought 
of or intended.'' So soon as this resolution was announced. Lieu- 
tenant Puget, the commander of the Chatham, landed, displayed 
the British colors, and took possession of the island in the name of 
his sovereign ; after which a salute was fired from the vessels, and a 
copper plate was deposited in a conspicuous place at the royal resi- 
dence, bearing the following inscription : " On the 25th of February, 
1794, Tamahamaha, king of Owyhee, in council with the principal 
chiefs of the island, assembled on board his Britannic majesty's 
sloop Discovery, in Karakakooa Bay, and, in presence of George 
Vancouver, commander of the said sloop, Lieutenant Peter Puget, 
commander of his said majesty's armed tender the Chatham, and 
the other officers of the Discovery, after due consideration, unani- 
mously ceded the said island of Owyhee to his Britannic majesty, 
and acknowledged themselves to be subjects of Great Britain." 

That Vancouver assumed more than was warranted, in thus 
asserting the cession of Owyhee, and the subjection of its chiefs to 
Great Britain, is clear ; not only from the subsequent declarations 
of the chiefs, that they only intended to place themselves under the 
protection of that power, but also from the understanding estab- 
lished between them and the navigator, that there ivas to be no 
interference in their internal concerns. At farthest, the transaction, 
even if ratified by the British government, can only be viewed as 
an engagement, on the part of the islanders, not to cede their 
country to any other nation, and, on the part of Great Britain, to 
secure them against conquest or oppression by any other. Most 
probably each of the parties merely desired to obtain for itself as 



252 TAMAAHMOTO RECEIVED BY VANCOUVER. [1794. 

many advantages as could be derived from the transaction, without 
any intention to observe concomitant obligations. Tamahamaha 
expected to receive assistance from Great Britain in conquering the 
remaining islands of the group ; and Vancouver wished to prevent 
other nations from resorting to Owyhee. It may be added, that 
Great Britain has, to this day, been little, if at all, benefited by the 
Sandwich Islands ; and that Tamahamaha, though he lived and 
flourished for twenty-five years after the transaction above men- 
tioned, never received a present, or even a message of any kind, 
from his brother King George, to whom he, however, occasionally 
sent a message by a whaling captain, reminding him that Vancou- 
ver's promise of a ship of war had not yet been fulfilled. No such 
promise is recorded in the journal of Vancouver ; though it there 
appears that the islanders had reason to believe that a vessel of war 
would be sent, for their protection, from Great Britain. 

Another circumstance connected with this pretended cession of 
Owyhee to the British deserves particular notice. The consumma- 
tion was delayed for some time, on account of the absence of 
Tamaahmoto, or Kamamoko, one of the most powerful chiefs, the 
same who, in February, 1790, captured the schooner Fair American, 
and murdered her crew, as already stated. Vancouver had, at 
first, refused to receive this man, or to have any intercourse with 
him ; but when it was found to be indispensable for the cession, 
that Tamaahmoto should give his vote in favor of it, the British 
commander began " seriously to reflect on all the circumstances 
that had attended his visits to the islands ; " and he, in the end, 
became '' thoroughly convinced that implacable resentment or un- 
relenting anger, exhibited in his own practice, would ill accord 
with the precepts which he had endeavored to inculcate for the 
regulation of iheirs." He therefore " determined, by an act of 
oblivion in his own mind, to efface all former injuries and offences," 
which he probably found no difficulty in doing, as the injuries and 
offences were committed against citizens of the United States ; and 
he accordingly intimated that he would " no longer regard Tamaah- 
moto as undeserving forgiveness, and would allow of his paying the 
compliments as he had so repeatedly requested, provided he would 
engage, in the most solemn manner, that neither himself nor his 
people (for he generally moved with a numerous train of attendants) 
would behave in any manner so as to disturb tile subsisting harmony." 
On receiving this intimation, Tamaahmoto readily came forward ; 
he was admitted to the table of the British commander, and was 



1794.] VANCOUVER COMPLETES THE SURVEY OF THE COAST. 253 

one of the seven chiefs who assented to the cession. It is not 
necessary to show what inference the natives of the Sandwich 
Islands might draw from a comparison between the favor thus 
shown to the murderer of citizens of the United States, and the 
trial and execution of the persons who were charged with causing 
the deaths of the officers of the British vessel at Woahoo.* 

Soon after these transactions, the British navigators took their 
final leave of the Sandwich Islands, and, returning to the north-west 
coasts of America, examined every port which they had not previ- 
ously visited, from the peninsula of Aliaska, eastward and southward, 
to Queen Charlotte's Island. They began at Cook's River, and, 
having ascertained that no great stream entered that bay, they 
changed its name to Cook^s Inlet, which is now most commonly 
applied to it. They then proceeded to Prince William's Sound, the 
shores of which were completely surveyed ; and thence along the 
bases of Mounts St. Elias and Fairweather, to the great opening 
in the coast, near the 58th degree of latitude, which had been called 
by Cook Cross Soimd. In Cook's Inlet and Prince William's 
Sound, they visited all the Russian establishments, of which Van- 
couver presents full and satisfactory accounts ; and, having succeeded 
in proving that the place in which Bering anchored on his last 
expedition could be no other than that called Admiralty Bay, at 
the foot of Mount St. Elias, on the east, they gave to it the name of 
Bering^s Bay, and as such it generally appears on English charts : 
the Russians call it the Bay of Yakutat. 

Through Cross Sound, Vancouver passed into a labyrinth of 
channels, some among islands, others running far inland, and termi- 
nating in the midst of stupendous mountains ; and, having succeeded 
in threading nearly all these passages, particularly those taking a 
northern or eastern direction, and thus joined his survey with that of 
the preceding year, he considered his task accomplished. He had 
made known the existence of an almost infinite number of islands, 
between the 54th and the 58th parallels, in the position assigned 
to the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, in the story of Fonte's voyage : 
but whilst a part of that story thus seemed to be confirmed, the 
remainder was supposed to be entirely disproved, as no great river 

* Tamaahmoto did not, however, scruple to declare, two years afterwards, that he 
would take the first vessel whicii might come witliin his roach ; and so little effect 
had the executions at Woahoo, that Captain Brown, of the British ship Buttorworth, 
was killed, in January, 1795, by the natives of that island, in an attack which they 
made on his vessel with the intention to take her. — See Broughton's account of his 
voyage in the Pacific, p. 43. 



254 STIKINE RIVER. [1794. 

was found issuing from the continent opposite these islands ; and 
Vancouver became well satisfied " that the precision with which 
his survey had been conducted would remove every doubt, and set 
aside every opinion of a north-west passage, or any water communi- 
cation navigable for shipping, between the North Pacific and the 
interior of the American continent, within the limit of his re- 
searches." The belief thus expressed by the navigator has been 
completely confirmed. It must, nevertheless, be admitted that, con- 
sidering the intricacies in the coasts between the 48th and the 58th 
parallels, many passages, by which vessels could penetrate into the 
interior of the continent, might have long escaped the notice of the 
most careful observer ; and in evidence of this is the fact, that a 
river called the Stikine* three miles wide at its mouth, and a mile 
ulJe thirty miles higher up, has been, since Vancouver's voyage, 
found entering the arm of the sea named by him Prince Frederick'' s 
Sound, in the latitude of 56 degrees 50 minutes. Vancouver's 
failure to discover the mouth of the Columbia should have ren- 
dered him distrustful of the entire accuracy of his observations in 
such cases. 

After completing these discoveries, Vancouver took possession of 
the part of the continent extending north-westward of that around 
the Strait of Fuca, which he had named JSew Georgia, as far as 
the 59th degree of latitude, and of all the adjacent islands, " in 
the name of his Britannic majesty, his heirs and successors," with 
the formalities usual on such occasions, including a double allow- 
ance of grog to the sailors. He also bestowed upon the various 
territories, straits, bays, &c,, names derived almost entirely from 
the lists of the members of the royal family, the ministry, the Par- 
liament, the army and the navy of Great Britain ; the importance 

* Vancouver mentions Stikeen as the name of a country or nation on the conti- 
nental shore of Prince Frederick's Sound ; and he heard, from the natives farther 
south, of a place in that sound called by them Uon-nass, which word seemed to mean 
great channel. The first intimation of the existence of the river was probably com- 
municated to the world by the captain of the ship Atahualpa, of Boston, from whose 
journal an extract is published in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society for 1804, p. 242. The captain there says, — 

" August 25th, 1802. I had some conversation with Cou (a chief of an island near 
Queen Charlotte's Sound) respecting the natives who inhabit the country back of 
Stikeen : he liad his information from Cokshoo, the Stikeen chief. * * * Cou 
also informs me that the place called JVass, or Uon-nass (spoken of by Vancouver) by 
the natives in Chebassa Strait, (Prince Frederick's Sound,) is the mouth of a river of 
very considerable extent, but unknown, navigable for vessels or large canoes." Near 
this place, the Atahualpa was attacked, in January, 1805, and her captain, mate, and 
six seamen, were killed : the others of her crew succeeded in escaping with the vessel. 



1794.] NAMES OF PLACES ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST. 255 

of the place thus distinguished being generally in proportion to the 
rank of the individual. Thus we find upon his chart of the north- 
west archipelago, the large islands or groups of King George the 
Third., the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Admiralty ; 
with the smaller ones of Pitt, Haivkesburij, Dundas, and Burke ; 
between which are the Duke of Clarence's Strait, Prince Frederick's 
Sound, Chatham Canal, Grenville Canal, and Stephens's Passage : 
a small group, near the 55th parallel, partially surveyed by Caamano, 
in 1791, was allowed to retain the name of Revillagigedo Islands, 
in honor of the enlightened viceroy of Mexico. The capes, bays, 
and smaller points or channels, are distributed among the JVindhams, 
Walpoles, and other high families, principally those belonging to 
the Tory party ; one little point being, however, vouchsafed to 
Charles James Fox. Without questioning the right of the discov- 
erer to impose these names, it may be observed, that none of them 
will, in all probability, ever be used by the inhabitants of the region 
in which the place so called is situated. The Russians, who occupy 
the islands and coasts of the main-land north of the 54th parallel, 
rigorously exclude from their charts, and from use in every way, the 
appellations assigned to places in their dominions by people of other 
civilized countries ; and even the British traders, whose posts extend 
through the parts of the continent distinguished by Vancouver as 
Neiv Georgia, Netv Hanover, New Cornwall, and New Norfolk, 
appear to be entirely ignorant of those names. 

From the northern coasts, Vancouver, when his labor was ended, 
went to Nootka, where he found the Spaniards still in possession, 
under the command of Brigadier Alava ; Quadra having died in the 
preceding spring, at San Bias. As no information had been received 
there from Europe respecting the surrender of the territories, the 
British commander sailed to Monterey, where he learned that the 
question had been " adjusted by the two courts amicably, and nearly 
on the terms which he had repeatedly offered to Quadra in Sep- 
tember, 1792;" and also "that the business was not to be carried 
into execution by him, as a fresh commission had been issued for 
the purpose by the court of London." Under these circumstances, 
he resolved to return immediately to Europe ; and he accordingly 
quitted Monterey on the 2d of December, 1794. On his way 
southward, he examined the Cahfornian coast, though not minutely, 
as far as Cape San Lucas, from which he took his departure for 
Valparaiso, in Chili. After a short stay at that place, he passed 
around Cape Horn, and arrived in England in November, 1795 ; 



256 END OF THE NOOTKA CONTROVERSY [1796. 

having completed, in the most effectual manner, the most extensive 
nautical survey which had ever been made in one expedition.* 

No account has yet transpired of the negotiation between the 
courts of London and Madrid, respecting the extent of territory, and 
the buildings on the north-west coasts of America, which were to be 
restored to British subjects, after the reference of that question to 
them by their commissioners. Lieutenant Broughton, who had 
been despatched to England by Vancouver in 1793, was thence 
sent by the government on this business to Madrid ; and, on his 
return to London, he was ordered to proceed to the North Pacific, 
in the sloop Providence, for the purpose of surveying the coasts of 
Asia, near Japan, being commissioned, at the same time, to receive 
possession of the territories at Nootka, in case the restitution should 
not have been previously made. He accordingly sailed from Eng- 
land for Nootka, where, in April, 1796, he was informed, by letters 
left in charge of Maquinna,t " that the Spaniards had delivered up 
the port of Nootka, &c., to Lieutenant Pierce, of the marines, 
agreeably to the mode of restitution settled between the two courts," 

* Vancouver's journal and charts were published at London in 1798, before which 
period the navigator had sunk into the grave. His journal is a simple record of obser- 
vations and occurrences, written in a plain and intelligible, though homely and un- 
pretending style ; and it is entirely free from those displays of imagination, in the 
shape of long political and philosophical disquisitions with which such works are 
often overloaded. The charts and views of the land are admirably executed, and their 
accuracy has been since generally confirmed. We are, in fact, indebted to Vancouver 
and his officers for our knowledge of the outline of the whole western coasts of Amer- 
ica, from the peninsula of California to the peninsula of Aliaska ; of which all the 
principal points have been ascertained with the utmost precision, so that succeeding 
navigators have only had to make corrections in the intermediate spaces. Vancouver 
himself was certainly a man of great courage, perseverance, and professional skill, 
possessing also good temper and good feelings, except with regard to citizens of the 
United States, against whom and their country he cherished the most bitter animosity- 
While admitting, with frankness, the merits of subjects of other nations, as discoverers 
or as men, he did not hesitate to adopt unworthy means to deprive the Americans of 
the reputation which they had justly earned by their labors in exploring, and to blacken 
their characters as individuals : for this object, he made use of misrepresentations, 
misstatements, insinuations, and concealments, whenever occasions presented them- 
selves; and that which he would have commended in a Briton, or excused in a Rus- 
sian or a Spaniard, became criminal in his eyes when committed by a citizen of the 
hated republic. He, nevertheless, appears to have given satisfaction to all with 
whom he came personally into communication. Ingraham speaks of him with the 
utmost respect, and acknowledges his obligations for the uniform kindness of the 
British navigator. In the Sandwich Islands his memory is universally cherished. 
He was long expected to return and establish himself there, as a commissioner from 
his sovereign ; and he probably would have been admitted among the number of 
their gods, if the ship which he is said to have promised to Tamahamaha had ever 
Deen sent. 

t Journal of a Voyage in the Pacific, by Captain Robert Broughton, p. 50. 



1796.] END OF THE NOOTKA CONTROVERSY. 2.57 

in March, 1795, after which the place had been entirely evacuated 
by both parties. This is the account given by Broughton in his 
journal, which, however, affords no information as to the mode of 
restitution thus settled. On tiie other hand, Belsham, an historian 
who, notwithstanding the violence of his prejudices, cannot be sus- 
pected of want of attachment to the honor or interests of his country, 
and who possessed ample means of ascertaining the fact, writes, in 
1805,* '-'It is nevertheless certain, from the most authentic subse- 
quent information, that the Spanish jlag jlying at Nootlca was never 
struck, and that the territory has been virtually relinquished by 
Great Britain." It indeed seems very improbable that the British 
government, which had just concluded a treaty of alliance with 
Spain, and had induced that power to declare war against France, 
when Broughton was sent to the Pacidc, should at the same time 
have required the surrender of this territory, or that Spain should 
have assented to it while she possessed the right, by the convention, 
to indemnify the British claimants for all such losses of land or build- 
ings, as they could prove to have been sustained by tiiem, since the 
month of April, 1789. It is more reasonable to suppose that the 
Spaniards merely abandoned the place, the occupation of which was 
useless and very expensive.f Since that period, no civilized nation 
has ever attempted to form an establishment at Nootka Sound, nor 
have the Spaniards occupied any spot on the Pacific coast of America 
north of Port San Francisco. 

In July, 1796, Spain, having been unsuccessful in her hostile 
operations against the French republic, was obliged to make peace 
with that power ; and, in October following, she was likewise obliged 

* History of Great Britain, vol. viii. p. 337. 

t In the library of Congress, at Washington, is an interesting Spanish manuscript 
presented by General Tornel, during his residence in the United States as minister 
from Mexico, entitled " Instruccion reservada del Rcyno do Nueva Espaiia que el 
Exmo. Seiior Virrey Conde de Revillagigedo dio i su Sucesor el Exmo. Senor Mar- 
ques de Branciforte en el Aifio de 1794 " — Secret Iiistmctions respecting the Kingdom of 
Kexo Spain, given, in 1794, by the Viceroy, Count de Revillagigedo, to his Successor, the 
Marquis de Branciforte. This work, which abounds in curious details relative to the 
administration of affairs in Mexico, has been carefully examined with reference to the 
objects of the present memoir. Nothing, however, has been collected from it, except 
m confirmation of statements elsewhere made. The paragraphs from 703 to 713, in- 
clusive, arc devoted to the Marine Department of San Bias, to whicli, as already men- 
tioned, the care of the Spanish colonics in California was committed. The count 
recommends to his successor the maintenance of those colonies, as the best means of 
preserving Mexico from foreign influences ; advising him, at the same time, however, 
not to extend the establishments beyond the Strait of Fuca. With regard to Nootka, 
it is merely stated, in paragraph 713, that orders had been sent to the commandant to 
abandon the place, agreeably to a royal dictamcn. 

33 



258 WAR BETWEEN SPAIN AND ENGLAND. [1796. 

to declare war against her former ally, Great Britain. In the mani- 
festo published by the court of Madrid, on the latter occasion, " the 
frequent arrival of English vessels on the coasts of Peru and Chili, 
to carry on contraband trade, and to reconnoitre those coasts, 
under the pretext of the whale fishery, which privilege they claimed 
under the Nootka convention," is alleged among the causes of the 
rupture. The British government, in its answer, denied " that the 
whale fishery by the English, in these parts, was, as asserted, claimed 
in the convention of Nootka, as then for the first time established," 
insisting that the right was, in that convention, " solemnly recognized 
by the court of Madrid, as having always belonged to Great Britain, 
and the full and undisturbed exercise of which was guarantied to 
his majesty's subjects, in terms so express, and in a transaction so 
recent, that ignorance of it cannot be pretended." That Great 
Britain did always possess the right to fish in the Pacific and South- 
ern Oceans, agreeably to the principles of common justice, is un- 
questionable ; but that this right was acknowledged by Spain in 
the Nootka convention, or in any other treaty between those powers 
previous to 1796, is by no means exact. In the Nootka conven- 
tion, all assertions and recognitions of rights are, on the contrary, 
avoided ; the whole instrument being, in fact, a series of conces- 
sions, limitations, and restrictions, resting entirely on the consent of 
both parties, and expiring on the withdrawal of its consent by either. 
On this declaration of war by Spain against Britain, the Nootka 
convention, with all its stipulations, of whatsoever nature they might 
have been, expired, agreeably to the rule universally observed and 
enforced among civilized nations, that all treaties are ended by war 
between the parties. From that moment, Spain might, as before 
the convention, claim the exclusive navigation of the Pacific and 
Southern Oceans, and the sovereignty of all their American coasts ; 
•and Great Britain might again assert the right of her subjects to sail 
and fish in every open sea, and to settle on every unoccupied coast.* 

From the preceding view of the circumstances connected with 
the convention of October, 1790, and the occupation of Nootka 
Sound by the Spaniards, we are authorized to conclude, — 

That no part of " the north-west coasts of the continent of North 
America, or of the adjacent islands," had ever been owned or occu- 
pied by British subjects, anterior to the establishment of the Spanish 
post at Nootka Sound, in May, 1789: Consequently, — 

* Further considerations on this subject will be found in the fifteenth chapter of 
this History. 



1796.] WAR BETWEEN SPAIN AND ENGLAND. 259 

That no " buildings or tracts of land," on those coasts or islands, 
were " to be restored to British subjects," agreeably to the first and 
second articles of the convention of October, 1790: And, as a 
further consequence, — 

That the abandonment of Nootka Sound by the Spaniards in 
1795, under whatsoever circumstances it may have been effected, 
gave to Great Britain no oilier rights at that place, than those which 
she enjoyed in common with Spain, in every other part of the coasts 
and islands north of Port San Francisco, by virtue of the third and 
fifth articles of the same convention. 



260 



CHAPTER XII. 

1788 TO 1810. 

Establishment of the North- West Fur Trading Company of Montreal, in 1783 — 
Expeditions of Mackenzie to the Arctic Sea and to the Pacific Coast — The Trade 
between the North Pacific Coasts of America and Canton conducted almost ex- 
clusively by Vessels of the United States from 1796 to 1814 — Establishment of 
the Russian American Company — Its Settlements and Factories on the American 
Coasts — Expedition of Krusenstern through the North Pacific — Proposition of 
the Russian Government to that of the United States, with Regard to the Trade 
of the North Pacific. 

Whilst the navigators of various nations were thus completing 
the survey of the shores of North-West America, important infor- 
mation respecting the interior regions of that section of the conti- 
nent was obtained by the agents of an association formed at 
Montreal, in 1784, for the prosecution of the fur trade in the Indian 
territories, which were supposed to be beyond the jurisdiction of 
the Hudson's Bay Company. 

Before Canada came into the possession of Great Britain, a large, 
if not the greater, portion of the furs sent from America by the 
subjects of that power was shipped from New York. After that 
period, Montreal became the principal seat of the trade ; and dis- 
putes immediately arose between the Hudson's Bay Company, which 
claimed the whole division of America drained by streams falling 
into that sea, and the Canadians, who pursued their trade in the 
southern and western parts of that territory. These disputes, with 
which the British government did not, from policy, choose to inter- 
fere, were injurious to the interests of both parties ; and, the Indian 
countries north of Lake Superior having been, about the same 
time, almost depopulated by the smallpox, the trade was confined, 
for some years, to the environs of Hudson's Bay, the lower lakes, 
and the St. Lawrence, where the animals were less numerous, and 
their furs inferior in quality. 

At length, about the year 1775, some enterprising merchants of 
Montreal penetrated into the countries, far north-west of Lake 
Superior, drained by the Saskatchawine and Athabasca Rivers, 



1784.] NORTH-WEST COMPANY FORMED. 261 

which had long before been frequented by the French ; and their 
success in trade was such as to induce others to make similar ex- 
peditions. The Canadians were, however, exposed, on their way, 
to great difficulties and annoyances from the Hudson's Bay Com 
pany, with which they were unable separately to contend ; and 
they, in consequence, in the year 1784, united their interests, and 
assumed for their association the title of the North- West Company 
of Montreal. Other associations were afterwards formed, under 
different names ; but they were soon either dissolved or united with 
the North- West Company. 

The organization of this new company was such, as to insure the 
utmost regularity and devotion to the interests of the concern, 
among all who were engaged in its service. The number of the 
shares was at first sixteen ; it was afterwards increased to twenty, 
and then to forty : a certain proportion of them was lield by the 
agents, residing in Montreal, who furnished the capital ; the remain- 
der being distributed among the proprietors, or partners, who super- 
intended the business in the forts or posts in the interior, and the 
clerics, who traded directly with the Indians. The clerks were 
young men, for the most part natives of Scotland, who entered the 
service of the company for five or seven years ; and, at the end of 
that time, or even earlier, if they conducted themselves well, they 
were admitted as proprietors. The inferior servants of the com- 
pany were guides, interpreters, and voyageurs, the latter being 
employed as porters on land, and as boatmen on the water, all of 
whom were bound to the interests of the body by hopes of advance- 
ment in station or in pay, and of pensions in their old age. 

The agents imported from England the goods required for the 
trade, had them packed into bundles of about ninety pounds 
weight each, and despatched them to the different posts ; and they 
received the furs in packs of the same size, and conducted the 
shipment and sale of them. The furs, as also the articles for the 
trade and use of the persons employed, were transported through 
the continent principally in canoes, for which the Ottowa River, 
Lakes Huron and Superior, and the other innumerable lakes, and 
the streams connecting them farther north-west, offered great fa- 
cilities ; the portage between the navigable waters on the lines of 
the route being effected by the voyageurs, who carried the bundles, 
and sometimes, also, the canoes, across the intervening tracts of 
land. In this manner the goods and furs passed one, two, and even 
three, thousand miles between the agent at Montreal and the pro- 



262 EXPEI>ITION TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. [1788. 

prietor at the trading-post ; and nearly four years elapsed between 
the period of ordering the goods in Canada, and that at which the 
furs could be sold in London. 

Before the formation of the North- West Company, the farther- 
most trading establishment of British subjects was one on the 
Athabasca or Elk River, about twelve hundred miles north-west of 
Lake Superior, which had been founded by Messrs. Frobisher and 
Pond, in 1778 ; and this continued to be the principal post in that 
part of the continent for ten years, when it was abandoned, and 
another, called Fort Chipewyan, was established on the south-west 
side of the Athabasca Lake, or Lake of the Hills, into which 
the Elk River discharges its waters. In the mean time, several 
large parties had been sent, for the purposes of trade and discovery, 
from Canada towards the west, one of which, consisting of about 
a hundred men, penetrated to the foot of the great dividing chain 
then called the Shining Mountains, or Mountains of Bright Stones, 
and now commonly known as the Rocky Mountains ; * but they were 

* Of this expedition an account appeared in a letter written at Pittsburg, in 1791, 
by an officer of General St. Clair's army, and published in the Collections of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society for 1794. The writer, whose name is not given, 

received his information from a Mr. M , who had, as he said, commanded the 

party in question. The following extracts will show the principal circumstances 
connected with the expedition, and among them will be found nothing which should 
induce us to doubt the truth of the account : — 

" Mr. M. stated that he had, about five years ago, departed from Montreal, with 
a company of about one hundred men, for the purpose of making a tour through the 
Indian countries, to collect furs, and to make remarks, &c. He pursued his route 
from Montreal, and entered the Indian country, and coasted about three hundred 
leagues along the banks of Lake Superior, whence he made his way to the Lake of 
the Woods, of which he took an accurate survey, and found it to be thirty-six leagues 
in length, and thence to Lake Ounipique, [Winnipeg,] of which he also gives a 
description. The tribes of Indians through which he passed were called the Mus- 
kego, Shipewyan, Cithnistinee, Great-belly, Beaver, Blood, Black-feet, Snake, 
Ossnobian, Shiveyton, Mandon, Paunee, and several others, &c. In pursuing his 
route, he found no difficulty in obtaining a guide to accompany him from one nation 
to another, until he reached the foot of the Shininff Mountains, or Mountains of Bright 
Stones, where, in attempting to pass, he was frustrated by the hostile appearance of 
the Indians who inhabit that part of the country ; the consequence of which was, 
that he was disappointed in his intention, and obliged to turn his back upon them. 
Having collected a number of Indians, he went forward again, with an intention to 
force his way over these mountains, if necessary and practicable, and to reach Cook's 
River, on the north-west coast of America, supposed by him to be about three 
hundred leagues from the mountains; but the inhabitants of the mountains again met 
him with their bows and arrows, and so superior were they in numbers to his little 
forces, that he was obliged to flee before them. Cold weather coming on, he built 
huts for himself and party in the Ossnobian [Assinaboin] country, and near to the 
source of a large river called the Ossnobian River, where they tarried duriog the 
cold season, and until some time in the warm months." 



1789.] MACKENZIE REACHES THE ARCTIC SEA. 263 

unable to proceed farther, in consequence of the hostile dispositions 
of the natives. 

Between 1788 and 1794, two other expeditions were made from 
Fort Chipewyan by Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, the superintending 
proprietor at that place, of which a particular account should be 
here given, as the geographical information obtained in them was 
highly interesting, and led to important commercial and political 
results.* 

The Athabasca Lake is a basin about two hundred miles in 
length from east to west, and about thirteen in average breadth, sit- 
uated under the 59th parallel of latitude, midway between the 
Pacific Ocean and Hudson's Bay. It is supplied by several streams, 
of which the principal are the Athabasca or Elk River, flowing from 
the south, and the Unjigah or Peace River, from the Rocky Moun- 
tains, on the west ; and its waters are discharged through the Slave 
River, running about two hundred miles north, into the Great Slave 
Lake, discovered by Hearne in 1771. All these rivers join the 
Athabasca Lake at its south-west end, near which Fort Chipewyan 
was then situated. 

Mackenzie's first expedition was made in 1789, and its principal 
object was to ascertain the course of the waters from the Great Slave 
Lake to the sea, which Hearne had left undetermined. For this 
purpose, he left Fort Chipewyan, with his party, in bark canoes, on 
the 3d of June, 1789, and, passing down the Slave River into the 
Great Slave Lake, he discovered a large stream flowing out of tiie 
latter basin, at its north-west extremity, to which he gaxe the name 
of Mackenzie Rive}' ; and this stream he descended about nine 
hundred miles, in a north-west direction, along the base of a chain 
of mountains, to its termination in the sea. On his return, he 
examined the country east of his great river, which had been 
traversed by Hearne, and arrived at Fort Chipewyan on the 12th 
of September, after an absence of nearly three months. 

The mouth of the Mackenzie was suj)posed by its discoverer to 
be situated near the 69th degree of latitude, and about 25 degrees 
of longitude, or five hundred miles, west of the mouth of Hearne's 
Coppermine River, which is not far from its t.ue position.f Still 

* Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Lawrence, through the Continent of 
North America, to the Frozen and the Pacific Oceans, in 1789 and 1793, with a pre- 
liminary Account of the Fur Trade of that Country ; by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. 
London, 1801. 

t Its principal mouth is in latitude 69", longitude 136<' west from Greenwich. 



264 Mackenzie's journey to the pacific. [1792. 

farther west must, of course, be situated any passage or sea con- 
necting the Pacific witii the part of the ocean into which both those 
rivers were supposed to empty ; and the existence of any such 
passage east of Bering's Strait became, in consequence, much less 
probable. 

In his second expedition, Mackenzie quitted Fort Chipewyan on 
the lOtli of October, 1792, and ascended the Unjigah or Peace 
River, from the Athabasca Lake, with much difficulty, to the foot 
of the Rocky Mountains, where he spent the winter in camp. In 
June of tlie following year, he resumed his voyage up the same 
stream, which he traced, in a south-west direction, through the 
mountains, to its springs, near the 54th degree of latitude, distant 
more than nine hundred miles from its mouth. Within half a mile 
of one of these springs, he embarked on another stream, called by the 
natives Tacoutchce-Tessee, down which he floated in canoes about 
two hundred and fifty miles ; then, leaving the river, he proceeded 
westward about two hundred miles over land, and, on the 22d of 
July, 1793, he reached the Pacific Ocean, at the mouth of an inlet, 
in the latitude of 52 degrees 20 minutes, which had, a few weeks 
previous, been surveyed by Vancouver, and been named the Cascade 
Canal. Having thus accomplished a passage across the American 
continent at its widest part, he retraced his steps to Fort Chipewyan, 
where he arrived on the 24th of August. 

By this expedition, Mackenzie ascertained beyond all doubt the 
fact of the extension of the American continent, on the Pacific 
Ocean, undivided by any water passage, as far north as the latitude 
of 52 degrees 20 minutes ; which fact was, about the same time, 
rendered nearly, though not absolutely, certain by the examinations 
of Vancouver. The River Tacoutchee-Tessee was supposed to be 
the upper part of the Columbia, until 1812, when it was traced to 
its mouth, in the Strait of Fuca, near the 49th degree of latitude ; 
and since that time it has been called Fraser's River. 

The discoveries of Mackenzie, taken in conjunction with the re- 
sults of Vancouver's surveys, strengthened the conclusion, at which 
Cook had arrived, that the American continent extended uninter- 
ruptedly north-westward to Bering's Strait ; and Mackenzie him- 
self conceived, though certainly without sufficient grounds, that he 
had clearly determined in the negative the long-agitated question 
as to the practicability of a voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
around the northern shores of America. For the advancement of 
British interests in the North Pacific, he recommended that the 



1792.] JOURNEYS OF FIDLER AND TRUDEAU. 265 

Hudson's Bay and the North- West Companies, which had been 
opposed to each other ever since the formation of the latter, should 
be united ; that the British government should favor the establish- 
ment of commercial communications across North America, for 
which the rivers and lakes in the portion claimed by him for that 
power aftbrded unrivalled facilities ; and that the East India Com- 
pany should throw open to their fellow-subjects the direct trade 
between the north-west coasts of America and China, which was 
then, he says, " left to the adventurers of the United States, acting 
without regularity or capital, or the desire of conciliating future 
confidence, and looking only to the interest of the moment." 
These recommendations were not thrown away, but were nearly all 
adopted by those to whom they were addressed ; and the result has 
been, the extension of British commerce and dominion throughout 
the whole northern section of America. 

Whilst Mackenzie was engaged in his journey to the Pacific 
coast, Mr. Fidler, a clerk in the service of the North- West Company, 
made an expedition from Fort Buckingham, a trading-post on the 
Saskatchawine River, south-westward, to the foot of the Rocky 
Mountains,* along which he seems to have travelled, through the 
regions drained by the head-waters of the Missouri. About the 
same time, several trading voyages were made up the Missouri by 
the French and Spaniards of St. Louis ; particularly by the mem- 
bers of a company formed at that place by a Scotchman named 
Todd, under the special protection of the Spanish government, the 
object of which was to monopolize the whole trade of the interior 
and western portions of the continent.f 

The trade of the citizens of the United States with the Indians 
in the central portion of the continent was much restricted, for 
many years after the establishment of the independence of the 
republic, in consequence of the possession of Louisiana by the 
Spaniards, and the retention by the British of several important 
posts south of the great lakes, within the territory acknowledged as 



* On Arrowsmith's "Map of all the new Discoveries in J^orth America," published 
Qt London in 1795, several streams are represented, on the authority of Mr. Fidler, 
as flowing from the Rocky Mountains on both sides ; but none corresponding with 
them in course or position have been since found. 

t The journal of one of these voyages, made by M. Trudeau, in 1794, has been 
preserved in the archives of the Department of State at Washington ; it is, however, 
devoted chiefly to the numbers, manners, customs, religion, &c., of the natives on 
the banks of the Missouri, particularly of the Arickaras, inhabiting the country 
under the 46th parallel of latitude. 

34 



266 AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE PACIFIC. [1796 1814. 

belonging to the Union, by the treaty of 1783. At length, by the 
treaty of November 19, 1794, between Great Britain and the 
United States, it was agreed that these posts should be given up 
to the Americans, and that the people of both nations, and the 
Indians " dwelhng on either side of the boundary line, should have 
liberty freely to pass and repass, by land or inland navigation, into 
the respective territories of the two parties, on the continent of 
America, (the country within the limits of the Hudson's Bay only 
excepted,) and to navigate all the lakes, rivers, and waters thereof, 
and freely to carry on trade with each other." The surrender of 
these posts, especially of Detroit and Michilimackinac, was very 
inconvenient to the North-West Company, whilst the trade of the 
Americans with the central regions was thereby increased ; and 
large quantities of furs were annually transported to the Atlantic 
cities, principally to New York, from which place they were dis- 
tributed throughout the United States, or shipped for London or 
Canton. 

On the North Pacific, the direct trade between the American 
coasts and China remained, from 1796 to 1814, almost entirely, as 
Mackenzie said, in the hands of the citizens of the United States : 
the British merchants were restrained from engaging in it by the 
opposition of their East India Company ; the Russians were not 
admitted into Chinese ports ; and few ships of any other nation 
were seen in that part of the ocean. That these American 
" adventurers acted without regularity or capital, or the desire of 
conciliating future confidence, and looking only to the interest of the 
moment^'' was also, to a certain extent, true ; though the facts can 
scarcely be considered discreditable to them, as Mackenzie insinu- 
ated, even supposing their operations to have been conducted in 
the manner represented by a British writer, whose hostility to the 
United States and their citizens was even more violent than that of 
Vancouver. 

" These adventurers," says the writer above mentioned,* " set 
out on the voyage with a few trinkets of very little value. In the 
Southern Pacific, they pick up some seal-skins, and perhaps a few 
butts of oil ; at the Gallipagos, they lay in turtle, of which they 

* Review of "A Voyage around the World, from 1806 to 1812, by Archibald 
Campbell," in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1816, written in a spirit of 
the most deadly hatred towards the United States, and filled with assertions most 
impudently false. 



1796 1814.] AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE PACIFIC. 267 

preserve the shells ; at Valparaiso, they raise a few dollars in ex- 
change for European articles ; at Nootka, and other parts of the 
north-west coasts, they traffic with the natives for furs, which, when 
winter commences, they carry to the Sandwich Islands, to dry and 
preserve from vermin ; here they leave their own people to take 
care of them, and, in the spring, embark, in lieu, the natives 
of the islands, to assist in navigating to the north-west coast, in 
search of more skins. The remainder of the cargo is then made 
up of sandal, which grows abundantly in the woods of Atooi and 
Owyhee, of tortoise shells, sharks' fins, and pearls of an inferior 
kind, [meaning, probably, mother-of-pearl shells,] all of which are 
acceptable in the China market ; and with these and their dollars 
they purchase cargoes of tea, silks, and nankins, and thus complete 
their voyage in the course of two or three years." 

This account appears to be, in most respects, correct, with regard 
to many of the American vessels engaged in the Pacific trade at the 
period to which it relates ; and it serves only to prove the industry, 
energy, courage, and fijvill, of those who embarked in such difficult 
and perilous enterprises, and conducted them so successfully. It 
would, however, be easy to show, from custom-house returns and 
other authentic evidence, that the greater number of the vessels sent 
from the United States to the north-west coasts were fine ships 
or brigs, laden with valuable cargoes of West India productions, 
British manufactured articles, and French, Italian, and Spanish 
wines and spirits ; and that the owners were men of large capital 
and high reputation in tlie commercial world, some of whom were 
able to compete with the British companies, and even occasionally 
to control their movements. 

The American traders in the Pacific have also been accused, by 
British writers, of practising every species of fraud and violence in 
their dealings with the natives of the coasts of that sea : yet the 
acts cited in support of these general accusations are only such as 
have been, and ever will be, committed by people of civilized 
nations, — and by none more frequently than the British, — when 
unrestrained by laws, in their intercourse with ignorant, brutal, and 
treacherous savages, always ready to rob or murder upon the 
slightest prospect of gain, or in revenge for the slightest affi-ont. 
Seldom did an American ship complete a voyage through the 
Pacific without the loss of some of her men, by the treachery or 
the ferocity of the natives of the coasts which she visited ; and 



268 AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE PACIFIC. [1796 1814. 

several instances have occurred of the seizure of such vessels, and 
the massacre of their whole crews, in this manner.* 

AH the islands in the Pacific, and every part of the north-west 
coasts of America, were visited by the vessels of the United States 
in the course of these voyages. Their principal places of resort 
were the Sandwich Islands, where they obtained fresh provisions, 
and occasionally seamen from among the natives; and the mouth 
of the Columbia, Nootka Sound, and Queen Charlotte's Island, in 
which they traded with the Indians for furs. They occasionally 
touched at the ports of California, where they were, hoM'ever, viewed 
with great distrust by the Spanish authorities ; and they generally 
made the tour of the Russian settlements, which derived from the 
Americans, in this way, the greater part of their supplies of European 
manufactures, ammunition, sugar, wines, and spirits, in exchange for 
peltries. The furs were, as before, sold in Canton, at prices not 
high, though sufficient to encourage a moderate importation ; but 
they seldom formed the whole cargo of the vessels arriving there, 
the remainder being composed of sandal-wood, and pearl and tor- 
toise shells. 

The Sandwich Islands fell in succession under the authority of 
Tamahamaha, who displayed admirable sagacity in his mode of 
conducting the government, amid all the dangers and difficulties 
arising from internal opposition and the constant presence of stran- 
gers of various nations. Like the present pacha of Egypt, he was 
not only the political chief, but also the chief merchant of his 
territories : in his minor commercial operations he was generally 



* In 1805, the ship Atahualpa, of Rhode Island, was attacked by tne savages in 
Millbank Sound, and her captain, mate, and six seamen, were killed ; after which 
the other seamen succeeded in repelling the assailants and saving the vessel. In 
March, 1803, the ship Boston, of Boston, while lying at Nootka Sound, was attacked 
by Maquinna and his followers, who obtained possession of her, and put to death all 
on board, with the exception of two men, who, after remaining in slavery four 
years, effected their escape. In the same manner, the ship Tonquin was, in June, 
1811, seized by the natives, at the entrance of the Strait of Fuca, and her whole crew 
murdered in a moment, as will be hereafter more particularly related ; and other 
instances of a similar nature might be cited. 

The account of the capture of the Boston, by John R. Jewitt, the armorer of the 
ship, contains many curious details respecting the country around Nootka Sound, 
and its inhabitants, as observed by the author during his residence there, from 
1803 to 1807. This little work has been frequently reprinted, and, though seldom 
found in libraries, is much read by boys and seamen in the United States. It presents 
the last notices which have been found on record of Maquinna, for whom Jewitt 
appears to have entertained a great admiration. 



1799.] RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY ESTABLISHED. 269 

successful ; but when he ventured to extend the scale of his specu- 
lations, by sending vessels laden with sandal-wood to Canton, he 
was, as he asserted, always cheated by those to whom he committed 
the management of the business. 

In California, the Franciscan missionaries were proceeding 
steadily in their course, and the number of their converts was 
daily increasing. The government appears to have been liberal in 
the appropriation of funds for their use ; but, in Spanish America, a 
long time always elapsed between the issue of an order for supplies 
and their delivery, and a large proportion of the amount originally 
ordered was generally subtracted before it reached those for whose 
use it was designed. Soldiers, whose terms had expired, were also, 
in some cases, allowed to remain in the country ; and the com- 
mandants permitted a little contraband trade with the Americans, 
who introduced manufactured articles in return for hides. 

In the mean time, the Russians of Northern Asia, though ex- 
cluded from the ports of China, continued their commerce with 
that empire, as also with Europe, as formerly, by means of caravans 
passing over land ; the communications being conducted principally 
by a company established at Irkutsk, the great mart of that part of 
the world. The fur trade of the northernmost coasts of the Pacific 
was monopolized by the association, formed in 1781, under the 
direction of Schelikof and Gollikof, which was protected by the 
empress Catharine, and endowed with many important privileges. 
After the death of Catharine, in 1794, her son and successor, Paul, 
at first determined to put an end to the association, on account of 
the alleged cruelty of its agents towards the natives of the American 
coasts : he was, however, induced to change his resolution ; and, a 
union having been effected, in 1798, between the two companies 
above mentioned, a decree was issued, on the 8th of July of the 
following year, conceding to them, under the title of the Russian 
American C/)mpany, the entire use and control, for twenty years, of 
all the coas'ts of America on the Pacific, from the 55th degree of 
north latitude to Bering's Strait, together with the adjacent islands, 
including the Kurile and the Aleutian groups, all of which were 
claimed as having been discovered by Russians. The company 
was also authorized to explore, and bring under subjection to the 
imperial crown, any other territories in America not previously 
attached to the dominions of some civilized nation ; with the 
express provision that the natives of all these countries should 
be treated with kindness, and, if possible, be converted to the 



270 RUSSIAN ESTABLISHMENTS IN AMERICA. [1806. 

Greek Catholic faith. Tliese privileges were, confirmed and in- 
creased by the emperor Alexander, whose chief minister of state, 
Count RomanzofF, was a zealous promoter of all that could tend to 
advance the power and interests of Russia in the Pacific ; and the 
company still enjoys the favor of the government, its charter having 
been renewed by successive decrees in 1821 and 1839. 

Under these advantageous circumstances, combined with great 
skill and energy in the management of its aflfairs, and aided by the 
constant increase of facilities for communication throughout the 
empire, the Russian American Company prospered ; and its estab- 
lishments soon extended over the whole of the Aleutian Archipelago, 
and thence eastward along the coast and islands of the American 
continent, to the distance of more than a thousand miles. In 1803, 
the most eastern of these establishments was on Norfolk Sound, the 
Port Guadelupe of the Spaniards, near the 56th degree of latitude, 
at the southern entrance of the passage which separates Mount 
San Jacinto or Edgecumb from the largest island of King George 
III.'s Archipelago. This settlement, founded in 1799, was de- 
stroyed, in 1803, by the natives of the country, with the assistance, 
as it is said, of some seamen who had deserted from an American 
vessel ; but another was formed there in 1805, which received tlie 
name of Neiv Archangel of Sitca, and has ever since been the 
capital of Russian America. The other principal establishments 
of the company were in Unalashka and Kodiak, and on the shores 
of Cook's Inlet, Prince William's Sound, and Admiralty or Bering's 
Bay. In 1806, preparations were made for occupying the mouth 
of the Columbia River ; but the plan was abandoned, although that 
spot, and the whole region north of it, was then, and for some time 
after continued to be, represented, on the maps pubhshed by the 
company, as within the limits of its rightful possessions. 

The population of each of these establishments consisted princi- 
pally of natives of America, brought by the Russians from other and 
distant parts of the coast ; between whom and the people of the 
surrounding country there were no ties of kindred or language, 
and there could be httle community of feelings or interests. The 
Aleutian Islands and Kodiak furnished the greater number of these 
forced emigrants, and also a large proportion of the crews of the 
vessels employed in the service of the company. The Russians 
were enlisted in Kamtchatka and Siberia, for a term of years : 
they entered as Promuschleniks, or adventurers, and were employed, 
according to the will of their superiors, as soldiers, sailors, hunters, 



1806.] GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIAN AMERICA. 271 

fishermen, or mechanics ; in the best of which situations their lot 
was more wretched than that of any other class of human beings 
within the pale of civilization, or, indeed, of any other class of per- 
sons whatsoever, except the natives of the American coasts, whom 
they assisted in keeping under subjection. Under such circum- 
stances, it will be easily believed that " none but vagabonds and 
adventurers ever entered the company's service as Promuschleniks ; " 
that " it was their invariable destiny to pass a life of wretchedness 
in America ; " that " few had the good fortune ever to touch Rus- 
sian ground again, and very few to attain the object of their wishes 
by returning to Europe." * 

The government of Russian America was arranged on a plan 
even more despotic than that of the other parts of the empire. 
The general superintendence of the affairs of the company was in 
the hands of a Directory, residing at St. Petersburg, by which all 
the regulations and appointments were made, and all questions 
were decided, with the approval, however, of the imperial depart- 
ment of conmierce. All the territories belonging to the company, 
and all persons and things in them, were placed under the control 
of a chief agent or governor, residing at Kodiak or Si tea, from 
whose orders there was no appeal, except to the Directory : in like 
manner, each district or group of settlements was ruled by an 
inferior agent, accountable directly to the governor-general ; and 
each factory or settlement was commanded by an overseer, chosen 
from among the Promuschleniks, who possessed the right to pun- 
ish, to a certain extent, those within the circle of his authority. 

The regulations for the government of these territories were, 
like those of the Spanish Council of the Indies, generally just and 
humane ; but the enforcement of them, as in Spanish America, was 
intrusted, for some time, to men with whom justice and humanity 
were subordinate to expediency. The first chief agent was Alex- 
ander Baranof, who had accompanied Schelikof in his expedition in 
1783, and was the superintendent of the settlements at Kodiak and 
Cook's Inlet when Vancouver visited those places in 1794. He was 
a shrewd, bold, enterprising, and unfeeling man, of iron frame and 
nerves, and the coarsest habits and manners. By his inflexible 
severity and energy, he seems to have maintained absolute and in- 
dependent sway over all the Russian American coasts for more than 
twenty years ; showing little respect to the orders of the Directory, 

* Knisenstern's Account of his Voyage to the North Pacific. 



272 GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIAN AMERICA. [1806. 

and even to those of the emperor, when they were at variance with 
his own views. He was, however, devoted to the interests of the 
company, and, its affairs being most profitably managed under his 
direction, he was allowed to follow his own course, and the com- 
plaints against him which reached the Directory were unheeded. 
These complaints were, it is true, not frequent ; for the Directory 
and the imperial throne at St. Petersburg were almost as completely 
inaccessible to the subjects and servants of the company residing in 
America, as they would have been in another planet. Among the in- 
ferior agents were men of higher and better character than their chief; 
but they were forced to bend under his authority, and their efforts 
to introduce improvements were vain, if they in any degree conflicted 
with his views as to the immediate interests of the company. 

Of the furs which formed the whole returns from these territories, 
some were transported in the company's vessels to Petropawlowsk 
and Ochotsk, whence were brought back the greater part of the 
supplies of provisions for the use of the establishments ; the re- 
mainder of the furs being exchanged for arms, ammunition, spirits, 
wine, tobacco, sugar, and European manufactures, furnished by the 
trading ships of the United States, of which a large number were 
then constantly employed in the North Pacific. The presence of 
these American vessels was by no means agreeable to the Russians, 
who would willingly have excluded them from that part of the 
ocean, not only for the purpose of monopolizing the fur trade, but 
also in order to prevent the natives of the coasts from obtaining 
arms and ammunition from the Americans, as they frequently did, 
to the detriment of the authority and interests of the company. 
This, however, could not have been effected without maintaining a 
large naval force in the North Pacific ; nor could the settlements 
have been extended or supported without the supplies furnished by 
the Americans, unless a direct intercourse were estabhshed by sea 
with Europe, China, or Japan. 

With the view of inquiring what measures would be most effect- 
ual for the advancement of the interests of the Russian American 
Company in these and other respects, it was determined at St. 
Petersburg, in 1803, that an expedition, scientific and political, 
should be made through the North Pacific. Two ships, the Na- 
deshda, commanded by Captain Krusenstern, and the Neva, by 
Captain Lisiansky, were accordingly despatched from Cronstadt, 
in August of that year, under the direction of Krusenstern, carry- 
ing out a large body of officers and men, distinguished in various 



1806.] rOTAGE OF KRUSENSTERN. 273 

branches of science, together with the chamberlain, Von Resanoff, 
who was commissioned as ambassador to Japan, and as plenipoten- 
tiary of the Russian American Directory. 

The two ships passed together around Cape Horn, touched at the 
Washington and the Sandwich Islands, and then separated ; the 
Neva going to the north-west coasts of America, and the Nadeshda 
to Petropawlowsk, where she arrived in the middle of July, 1804. 
From Kamtchatka, Krusenstern proceeded, with the ambassador, to 
Nangasaki, the capital of Japan, at which place their arrival only 
served to excite suspicions : they were not allowed to land, except 
for the purpose of taking exercise in a confined space ; the letter 
and presents of the Russian emperor were rejected ; and the am- 
bassador was distinctly informed that no vessels belonging to his 
nation would, in future, be permitted to enter a Japanese port. 
After this rebuff, the Nadeshda returned to Kamtchatka, and Kru- 
senstern passed several months in examining the coasts of Tartary 
and the adjacent islands between that peninsula and Japan ; these 
labors being completed, he went to Canton, where she arrived in the 
end of November, 1805. 

Lisiansky, in the Neva, had, in the mean time, visited Sitca, 
Kodiak, and other Russian establishments, on the north-west coasts 
of America, at which his presence was advantageous to the interests 
of the company, by controlling the hostile dispositions of the natives ; 
and having performed all that could be done by him in that quar- 
ter, he proceeded to Canton, with a cargo of furs, and there rejoined 
Krusenstern, in December, 1805. The Chinese were found equally 
as determined as the Japanese to allow no commerce by sea with 
the Russians ; and many difficulties were experienced before the 
furs brought by the Neva could be landed for sale. This business 
being at length despatched, the two vessels took their departure, 
and, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, reached Cronstadt in 
August, 1806, having carried the Russian flag for the first time 
across the equator and around the world. 

In the mean time, also. Von Resanoff, — a singularly ridiculous 
and incompetent person, — after the failure of his embassy to Japan, 
had gone, as plenipotentiary of the Russian American Company, to 
Sitca, where he passed the winter of 1805-1806, engaged in devis- 
ing plans for the conduct of the company's affairs, all of which were 
quietly set aside by the chief agent, Baranof. The propriety of 
expelling the Americans from the North Pacific was at the same 
time rendered questionable, by the fact that the garrison and set- 
35 



274 VOYAGE OF KRUSENSTERN. [1808. 

tiers at this place would have all perished from famine, had they 
not fortunately been supplied with provisions by the ship Juno, from 
Rhode Island. This ship was purchased for the use of the company, 
and Von Resanoff, embarking in her, sailed along the coast to Cal- 
ifornia, endeavoring, in his way, but without success, to enter the 
mouth of the Columbia, where he proposed to form a settlement ; 
and having spent some time in trifling at San Francisco, he returned 
to Kamtchatka, on his way from which to Europe he died. 

Though not one of the commercial or political objects proposed 
by this expedition was attained, it was, nevertheless, productive of 
great advantages, not only to the Russians, but to the cause of hu- 
manity and of science in general ; particularly by the rectification 
of numerous errors in the charts of the Pacific Ocean, and by the 
exposure of the abuses in the administration of the Russian Amer- 
ican Company's dominions, which led to the immediate removal of 
many of them. No one could have been better qualified for the 
direction of such an expedition than Krusenstern, whose narrative 
is equally honorable to him as a commander, as a man of science, 
and as a philanthropist. Those who wish to learn at what cost of 
human life and suffering the furs of the North Pacific coasts are pro- 
cured, will find ample information on the subject in his pages ; while, 
at the same time, he presents instances of fortitude, perseverance, 
and good feeling, on the part of his countrymen, calculated to coun- 
teract, in a great measure, the unfavorable impressions, with regard 
to them, which his other details might have produced.* 

In 1808, soon after the return of Krusenstern's ships to Europe, 
diplomatic relations were established between Russia and the United 
States ; and in the following year, a representation was addressed 
by the court of St. Petersburg to the government of the Union, 
on the subject of the illicit trade of American citizens with the 
natives of the North Pacific coasts, by means of which those savages 
were supplied with arms and ammunition, to the prejudice of the 
authority and interests of the emperor and his people in that portion 

* Accounts of this expedition have been published by Krusenstern, by Lisiansky, 
and by Langsdorf, the surgeon of the Nadeshda, all of which have been translated 
into English and other European languages. 

Krusenstern was, soon after his return to Russia, raised to the rank of admiral. He 
Btill lives at St. Petersburg, honored by his government, and esteemed by all who 
know him. His communications frequently appear in the reports of the proceedings 
of various scientific societies in Europe; they are chiefly respecting the hydrography 
of the Pacific Ocean, to which subject his labors have been long and assiduously 
devoted, with results important and beneficial to the whole world. 



1810.] PROPOSITIONS OF RUSSIA TO THE UNITED STATES. 275 

of his dominions. A desire was at the same time expressed, that 
some act should be passed by Congress, or some convention be 
concluded between the two nations, which might have the effect of 
preventing the continuance of such irregularities. No disposition 
being shown by the American government to adopt any of those 
measures. Count Romanzoff, the minister of foreign affairs at St. 
Petersburg, proposed to Mr. John Quincy Adams, the plenipoten- 
tiary of the United States at that court, an arrangement, by which 
the vessels of the Union should supply the Russian settlements on 
the Pacific with provisions and manufactures, and should transport 
the furs of the company to Canton, under the restriction of their 
abstaining from all intercourse with the natives of the north-west 
coasts of America. Mr. Adams, in his answer, showed several 
reasons for which his government could not, with propriety, accede 
to this proposition ; and he moreover desired to know within what 
limits it was expected that the restriction should be observed. This 
question was, doubtless, embarrassing to the Russian minister, who, 
however, after some time, replied, that the Russian American Com- 
pany claimed the whole coast of America on the Pacific and the 
adjacent islands, from Bering^s Strait, southward to and beyond 
the mouth of the Columbia River ; whereupon the correspondence 
was immediately terminated. 

There was, certainly, no disposition, on the part of the United 
States, to encourage their citizens in the trade which formed the 
subject of the complaints of the Russians, or to offend that power 
by refusing to cooperate in suppressing such a trade. But the 
American government properly considered that no means existed 
for enforcing the restrictions, with justice and regularity, even on 
the coasts which might be admitted to belong to Russia ; while, at 
the same time, the right of that nation to the possession of the 
coasts so far south as the Columbia, could not be recognized, for 
reasons which will be made apparent in the ensuing chapter. 



276 



CHAPTER XIII. 

1803 TO 1806. 

Cession of Louisiana by France to the United States — Inquiries as to the true Extent 
of Louisiana — Erroneous Supposition that its Limits towards the North had been 
fixed by Commissaries agreeably to the Treaty of Utrecht — President Jefferson 
sends Lewis and Clarke to examine the Missouri and Columbia — Account of their 
Expedition from the Mississippi to the Pacific. 

f The discovery, or rediscovery, of the Columbia River, by Gray, 
remained almost entirely unknown, until it was communicated to the 
world by the publication of the narrative of Vancouver's expedition, 
in 1798 ; at which time, and for several years afterwards, no one 
imagined that any thing connected with that river would ever be- 
come particularly interesting to the people or government of the 
United States of America. 

The territories of the United States were, at that time, all in- 
cluded between the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Mississippi 
River on the west. In the north were the British provinces ; in the 
south lay Florida, belonging to Spain ; and beyond the Mississippi, 
the Spaniards also claimed the vast region called Louisiana, stretch- 
ing from the Gulf of Mexico northward and north-westward to an 
undefined extent. Thus all communication between the States of 
the Federal Union and the Pacific was completely cut off", by the in- 
terposition of countries possessed by foreign and unfriendly nations. 
The position of the United States, and of their government and 
people, with regard to the north-western portion of the continent, 
was, however, entirely changed after the 30th of April, 1803, when 
Louisiana, which had been ceded by Spain to France in 1 800, came 
into their possession, by purchase from the latter power. From that 
moment, the route across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
cific lay open to the Americans ; and nothing could be anticipated 
capable of arresting their progress in the occupation of the whole 
territory included between those seas. 

Before relating the measures taken by the government of the 
United States in consequence of the acquisition of Louisiana, it will 



1712.] GRANT OF LOUISIANA TO CROZAT. 277 

be convenient to present some observations respecting the northern 
and western hmits of that portion of America. 

The first discovery of the southern part of the Mississippi and the 
adjacent countries, by the Spaniards, in the sixteenth century, has 
been already mentioned. The northern branches of that river vv^ere 
explored in the latter years of the seventeenth century, by the French, 
from Canada ; * and before 1710, many French colonies and posts had 
been estabhshed on its banks, in virtue of which. King Louis XIV. 
claimed possession of all the territories to a great distance on either 
side of the stream. In 1712, the exclusive trade of the southern 
division of these territories, then called Louisiana, was granted by 
King Louis to Antoine Crozat, in a royal decree or charter, bearing 
date the 17th of September, which contains the earliest exposition of 
the limits of that region. The words of the decree are as follows : f 
" Nous avons par ces presentes, signees de notre main, etabli et 
etablissons ledit Sieur Crozat, pour faire seul, le commerce dans 
toutes les terres par Nous possedees, et bornees par le Nouveau Mex- 
ique, et par celles des Anglais de la Caroline, tous les etablissemens, 
ports, havres, rivieres, et principalement le port et havre de I'isle 
Dauphine, appellee autrefois de Massacre, le fleuve St. Louis, au- 
trefois appellee Mississippy, depuis le bord de la mer jusqu'aux Illinois, 
ensemble les rivieres St. Philippe, autrefois appellee des Missourys, 
et St. Hierosme, autrefois appellee Ouabache, avec tous les pays, 
contrees, lacs dans les terres, et les rivieres qui tombent directement 
ou indirectement dans cette partie du fleuve St. Louis. Voulons 

* JeiFreys — or whoever wrote the history of the French dominions in America, pub- 
lished under the name of JeiFreys, in 1759 — says, at p. 134 of that work, " The Mis- 
sissippi, the chief of all the rivers of Louisiana, which it divides almost into two equal 
parts, was discovered by Colonel Wood, who spent almost ten years, or from 1654 to 
1664, in searching its course, as also by Captain Bolt, in 1670." 

t "We have, by these presents, signed with our hand, authorized, and do authorize, 
the said Sieur Crozat, to carry on exclusively the trade in all the territories by us pos- 
sessed, and bounded by New Mexico and by those of the English in Carolina, all the 
establishments, ports, harbors, rivers, and especially the port and harbor of Dauphin 
Island, formerly called Massacre Island, the River St. Louis, formerly called the Mis- 
sissippi, from the sea-shore to the Illinois, together with the Rivers St. Philip, formerly 
called the Missourics River, and the St. Jerome, formerly called the Wabash, [the 
Ohio,] with all the countries, territories, lakes in the land, and the rivers emptying 
directly or indirectly into that part of the River St. Louis. All the said territories, 
countries, rivers, streams, and islands, we will to be and remain comprised under the 
name of the government of Louisiana, which shall be dependent on the general gov- 
ernment of New France, and remain subordinate to it; and we will, moreover, that 
all the territories which we possess on this side of the Illinois, be united, as far as need 
be, to the general government of New France, and form a part thereof; reserving to 
ourself, nevertheless, to increase, if we judge proper, the extent of tbe government 
of the said country of Louisiana." 



278 LOUISIANA CEDED BY FRANCE TO SPAIN. [1762- 

que les dites terres, contrees, fleuves, rivieres et isles, soient et de- 
meurent compris sous le nom du gouvernement de la Louisiane, qui 
sera dependant du gouvernement general de la Nouvelle France, 
auquel il demeurera subordonne ; et voulons en outre, que toutes 
les terres que nous possedons, depuis les Illinois, soient reunies, en 
tant que besoin est, au gouvernement general de la Nouvelle France, 
et en fassent partie ; Nous reservant neanmoins d'augmenter, si 
nous le jugeons a propos, I'etendue du gouvernement du dit pays 
de la Louisiane." 

This description of the extent of Louisiana v^^as sufficiently defi- 
nite for the immediate purposes of the concession : as the trade and 
settlement of the country would necessarily be, for a long time, con- 
fined to the vicinity of the great rivers, the precise determination of 
its boundaries on the east and the west might well be deferred for 
future arrangement with Great Britain and Spain. Crozat relin- 
quished his privilege in 1717 ; the Illinois country was then annexed 
to Louisiana, by a royal decree, and the whole region was granted 
to the Compagnie d' Orient, better known as Law^s Mississippi Com- 
pany, which held it until 1732 : in that year it reverted to the 
French crown, and was governed as a French province until 1769. 
On the 3d of November, 1762, the preliminaries of peace were 
signed at Paris, between France and Spain on the one part, and 
England and Portugal on the other ; and on the same day, " the 
most Christian king authorized his minister, the duke de Choiseul, 
to deliver to the marquis di Grimaldi, the ambassador of the Catholic 
king, in the most authentic form, an act, whereby his most Christian 
majesty cedes, in entire possession, purely and simply, without ex- 
ception, to his Catholic majesty, and his successors in perpetuity, all 
the country known under the name of Louisiana, as also New Or- 
leans and the island in which that city is situated." The cession 
accordingly took place in form, on the 23d of the same month, in 
precisely the same terms as to the extent of the territory ceded ; * 
and on the 10th of February following, a treaty was concluded at 
Paris, between France and Spain on the one part, and Great Britain 
and Portugal on the other, by which Great Britain obtained posses- 
sion of Canada, Florida, and the portion of Louisiana " east of a 
line, drawn along the middle of the Mississippi, from its source to 

* The documents relating to this cession were kept secret until 1836, when copies 
of them were obtained from the archives of the Department of Foreign Affairs at Mad- 
rid, by the late J. M. White, of Florida; from which translations were made by the 
author of this History, and published by the Senate of the United Statw, in 1837. 



1803.] LOUISIANA CEDED TO FRANCE, AND TO THE U. STATES. 279 

the River Iberville, and thence along the middle of the Iberville, 
and the Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea." 

By these treaties, the eastern boundary of Louisiana was defini- 
tively fixed, from the Mexican Gulf to the head of the Missis- 
sippi ; and Great Britain, at the same time, formally renounced all 
her claims to the territories west of that river. With regard to ! 
the western limits of Louisiana, no settlement of boundaries was ] 
necessary ; as the territory thus acquired by Spain would join , 
other territories, of which she also claimed possession. 

The transfer of Louisiana by France to Spain was not officially 
promulgated until 1765 ; nor did the Spaniards obtain possession 
of the country until 1769, from which period they occupied it 
continually, until the 30th of November, 1803. In the mean 
time, Louisiana twice changed its masters. On the 1st of 
October, 1800, a treaty was concluded between the French re- 
public and the king of Spain, by which the former party en- 
gaged to enlarge the dominions of the duke of Parma, a prince 
of the royal family of Spain, by adding to them some other 
territories in Italy ; and his Catholic majesty, by the third article, 
"engaged, on his part, to retrocede to the French republic, six 
months after the full and entire execution of the above-mentioned 
conditions and stipulations relative to the duke of Parma, the 
colony or province of Louisiana, ivith the same extent which it 
now has in the hands of Sjyain, and which it had when France 
possessed it, and such as it should be, according to the treaties 
subsequently made between Spain and other states." * The conditions 
relative to the duke of Parma having been fulfilled by France, 
Louisiana became the property of that republic ; between which 
and the United States of America a treaty was concluded, on 
the 30th of April, 1803, wherein, after reciting the third article 
of the treaty of 1800, the territory thus retroceded to France 
was " ceded to the United States, in the name of the French 
republic, forever, and in full sovereignty, with all its rights and 
appurtenances, as fully, and in the same manner, as they have been 
acquired by the French republic, in virtue of the above-mentioned 
treaty with his Catholic majesty." 

* The treaty of October 1st, 1300, was never made public until 1820, when 
it appeared, for the first time, in the French and the Spanish languages, in the 
Memoir published at Madrid by the Chevalier de Onis, formerly minister plenipo- 
tentiary of Spain in the United States, in defence of his conduct, in concluding 
the treaty by which Florida became the property of the American Union. 

3>7 



280 LOUISIANA CEDED TO THE UNITED STATES. [1803. , 

At the time when the treaty for the cession of Louisiana to the 
United States was concluded, the Spaniards still remained in pos- 
session of the country ; the order from the court of Madrid for the 
delivery to France, was not executed until the 30th of November, 
1804, twenty days after which the surrender to the American com- 
missioners took place in due form at New Orleans. The Spanish 
government had already protested sigainst the transfer of Louisiana 
to the United States, as being contrary to engagements previously 
made by France, of which, however, no proof was adduced ; and 
some disposition was at first manifested on the part of the Spanish 
authorities at New Orleans, and in the provinces of Mexico adjacent, 
to dispute the entrance of the Americans. This opposition was, how- 
ever, abandoned, and a negotiation was commenced at Madrid, in 
1804, between the governments of the United States and Spain, 
for the adjustment of the lines which were to separate their re- 
spective territories. 

In this negotiation, the United States claimed the whole of the 
territory ceded by France to Spain in 1762, with the exception of 
the portion east of the Mississippi, which had been surrendered to 
Great Britain in 1763 ; and this territory was considered by them 
as including the whole coast on the Mexican Gulf, from the Perdido 
River as the western limit of Florida, west and south to the River 
Bravo del Norte as the north-east boundary of Mexico, with all the 
intermediate rivers and all the countries drained by them, not pre- 
viously possessed by the United States. The Spanish government, 
on its side, contended — that France had never rightfully possessed 
any part of America west of the Mississippi, the whole of which 
had belonged to Spain ever since its discovery — that the French 
establishments in that territory were all intrusive, and had only 
been tolerated by Spain, for the sake of preserving peace ; and — 
that the Louisiana ceded to Spain by France in 1762, and retro- 
ceded to France in 1800, and transferred by the latter power to the 
United States in 1803, could not, in justice, be considered as com- 
prising more than New Orleans, with the tract in its vicinity east of 
the Mississippi, and the country immediately bordering on the west 
bank of that river. The parties were thus completely at variance 
on fundamental principles ; and, neither being disposed to yield, the 
negotiation, after having been carried on for some months, was 
broken off, and it was not renewed until 1817. Meanwhile, how- 
ever, the United States remained in possession of nearly all the 



J 



1804.] NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF LOUISIANA. 281 

territories drained by the Mississippi ; the Sabine River being, by 
tacit consent, regarded as the dividing Une betvv^een Louisiana 
and the Mexican provinces. 

A negotiation was at the same time in progress, betv^^een the 
government of the United States and that of Great Britain, re- 
specting the northern boundary of Louisiana, for which the Amer- 
icans claimed a Une running along the 49th parallel of latitude, 
upon the grounds that this parallel had been adopted and definitive- 
ly settled, by commissaries appointed agreeably to the tenth article 
of the treaty concluded at Utrecht, in 1713, as the dividing line 
betioeen the French possessions of Western Canada and Louisiana on 
the south, and the British territories of Hudson's Bay on the north ; 
and that, this treaty having been specially confirmed in the treaty 
of 1763, by which Canada and the part of Louisiana east of the 
Mississippi and Iberville were ceded to Great Britain, the remainder 
of Louisiana continued, as before, bounded on the north by the 49th 
parallel. " '"■ - 

This conclusion would be undeniable, if the premises on which 
it is founded were correct. The tenth article of the treaty of 
Utrecht does certainly stipulate that commissaries should be ap- 
pointed by the governments of Great Britain and France respec- 
tively, to determine the line of separation between their possessions 
in the northern part of America above specified ; and there is 
reason to believe that persons were commissioned for that object : 
but there is no evidence which can be admitted as establishing the fact 
that a line running along the 49th parallel of latitude, or any other 
line, was ever adopted, or even proposed, by those commissaries, or by 
their governments, as the limit of any part of the French possessions 
on the north, and of the British Hudson's Bay territories on the 
south. 

It is true that, on some maps of Northern America, published in 
the middle of the last century, a line drawn along the 49th parallel 
does appear as a part of the boundary between the French posses- 
sions and the Hudson's Bay territories, as settled according to the 
treaty of Utrecht : but, on other maps, which are deservedly held 
in higher estimation, a different line, following the course of the 
highlands encircling Hudson's Bay, is presented as the limit of the 
Hudson's Bay territory, agreeably to the same treaty ; and, in other 
maps again, enjoying equal, if not greater, consideration, as having 
been published under the immediate direction of the British gov- 
36 



282 TREATY BETWEEN ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES. [1807. 

ernment, no line separating those British possessions from Louisiana 
or Canada is to be seen. In the other works, pohtical, historical, 
and geographical, which have been examined with reference to this 
question, nothing has been found calculated to sustain the belief 
that any line of separation was ever settled, or even proposed ; nor 
has any trace of such an agreement been discovered in the archives 
of the Department of Foreign Affairs of France, which have been 
searched with the view of ascertaining the fact.* 

The belief, nevertheless, that the 49th parallel of latitude was 
fixed, by commissaries appointed agreeably to the provisions of the 
treaty of Utrecht, as the northern limit of Louisiana and Western 
Canada, has been hitherto universally entertained without suspicion 
in the United States, and has formed the basis of most important 
treaties. 

During the negotiations above mentioned, between the United 
States and Great Britain, no attempt was made, on the part of the 
latter power, to controvert the assertion of the Americans respecting 
this supposed boundary line ; and, in the fifth of the additional and 
explanatory articles proposed to be annexed to the treaty signed by 
the plenipotentiaries on that occasion, it was agreed that " a line 
drawn due north or south (as the case may require) from the most 
north-western point of the Lake of the Woods, until it shall inter- 
sect the 49th parallel of north latitude, and from the point of such 
intersection, due west, along and with the said parallel, shall be the 
dividing line between his majesty's territories and those of the 
United States, to the westward of the said lake, as far as their said 
respective territories extend in that quarter ; and that the said line 
shall, to that extent, form the southern boundary of his majesty's 
said territories and the northern boundary of the said territories of 
the United States : Provided, That nothing in the present article 
shall be construed to extend to the north-west coast of America, 
or to the territories belonging to or claimed by either party on the 
continent of America to the westward of the Stony Mountains." f 
This article was approved by both governments ; President Jeffer- (, 
son, nevertheless, wished that the proviso respecting the north-west 
coast should be omitted, as it " could have little other effect than 
as an offensive intimation to Spain that the claims of the United 
States extend to the Pacific Ocean. However reasonable such 
claims may be, compared with those of others, it is impolitic, espe- 

* See the complete investigation of this subject in the Proofs and Illustrations, 
under the letter F. 

1 President Jefferson's Message to Congress of March 22d, 1808. 



1803.] WESTERN BOUNDARy OF LOUISIANA. 283 

cially at the present moment, to strengthen Spanish jealousies of 
the United States, which it is probably an object with Great Britain 
to excite, by the clause in question." The outrage committed by 
the British upon the American frigate Chesapeake, together with the 
change in the British ministry, prevented the ratification of this treaty; 
and the discussion of boundaries was not renewed until 1814. 

How far Louisiana extended westward when it was ceded by 
France to Spain, there are no means of determining. The question 
has never beeii^ touched in treaties, nor eveij in negotiations, so far 
as known. The French maps and histories are, in general, so en- 
tirely erroneous as regards the geography of America, and always 
so absurd in their statements as to the extent of the French domin- 
ions, that they are of no value as evidence ; while the charters of 
the British sovereigns appear, at present, scarcely less extravagant. 
Those charters, embracing, together, the whole division of North 
America between the 48th and the 31st parallels of latitude, were, 
nevertheless, maintained by Great Britain until the peace of 1763, 
when her government, by agreeing to admit the Mississippi as the 
line of separation between her dominions and those of France on 
the west, implicitly recognized the right of the latter power to the 
whole territory beyond that river, between the same parallels ; and 
Louisiana always embraced all the French possessions west of the 
Mississippi. In the absence of more direct light on the subject 
from history, we are forced to regard the boundaries indicated by 
nature — namely, the highlands separating the waters of the Mis- 
sissippi from those flowing into the Pacific or the Californian Gulf — 
as the true western boundaries of the Louisiana ceded by France 
to Spain in 1762, and retroceded to France in 1800, and trans- 
ferred to the United States by France in 1803 : but then it must 
also be admitted, for the same as well as for another and stronger 
reason, that the British possessions farther north were bounded in 
the west by the same chain of highlands ; for the charter of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, on which the right to those possessions 
was founded and maintained, expressly included only the countries 
traversed by streams emptying into Hudson's Bay. 

Even before the transfer of Louisiana to the United States was 
completed, the prompt and sagacious Jefferson, then president of 
the republic, was preparing to have that part of the continent ex- 
amined by American agents. In January, 1803, he addressed to 
the Congress of the Union a confidential Message, recommending 
that means should be taken for the purpose without delay ; and, 



284 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE TO THE WEST. [1805. 

his suggestions having been approved, he commissioned Captains 
Meriwether Lewis and WiUiam Clarke to explore the River Mis- 
souri and its principal branches to their sources, and then to seek 
and trace to its termination in the Pacific, some stream, " whether 
the Columbia, the Oregon, the Colorado, or any other, which might 
offer the most direct and practicable water communication across 
the continent, for the purposes of commerce." Other persons 
were, at the same time, appointed to examine the Upper Mississippi, 
and the principal streams falling into that great river from the west, 
below the Missouri, in order that exact information might, as soon 
as possible, be procured, with regard to the channels of communi- 
cation throughout the newly-acquired territories. 

A few days after Lewis had received his instructions as com- 
mander of the party which was to cross the continent, the news of 
the conclusion of the treaty for the cession of Louisiana reached 
the United States; and he immediately set off for the west, with 
the expectation of advancing some distance up the Missouri before 
the winter. He was, however, unable to pass the Mississippi in 
that year, in consequence of the delay in the surrender of the 
country, which was not terminated until the latter part of Decem- 
ber ; and it was not until the middle of May, 1804, that he could 
begin the ascent of the Missouri. His party consisted of forty-four 
men, who were embarked in three boats ; their progress against the 
current of the mighty river was necessarily slow, yet, before the 
end of October, they arrived in the country of the Mandan Indians, 
where they remained until the following April, encamped at a place 
near the 48th degree of latitude, sixteen hundred miles from the 
Mississippi. 

On the 7 th of April, 1805, Lewis and Clarke left their encamp- 
ment in the Mandan country, with thirty men, the otliers having 
been sent back to St. Louis ; and, after a voyage of three weeks up 
the Missouri, they reached the junction of that river with the other 
principal branch, scarcely inferior in magnitude, called by the old 
French traders the Roche jaune, or Yellowstone River. Thence 
continuing their progress westward on the main stream, their navi- 
gation was, on the 13th of June, arrested by the Great Foils of the 
Missouri, a series of cataracts extending about ten miles in length, 
in the principal of which the whole river rushes over a precipice of 
rock eighty-seven feet in height. Above the falls, the party again 
embarked in canoes hollowed out from tiie trunks of the largest 
cotton-wood trees, growing near the river ; and, advancing south- 



1805.] PASSAGE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 285 

ward, they, on the 19th of July, passed through the Gates of the 
Rocky Mountains, where the Missouri, emerging from tliat chain, 
runs, for six miles, in a narrow channel, between perpendicular 
parapets of black rock, rising twelve hundred feet above its surface. 
Beyond this place, the river is formed by the confluence of several 
streams, the largest of which, named by Lewis the Jefferson, was 
ascended to its sources, near the 44th degree of latitude, where the 
navigation of the Missouri ends, at the distance of about three 
thousand miles from its entrance into the Mississippi. 

Whilst the canoes were ascending the Jefferson River, Captains 
Lewis and Clarke, with some of their men, proceeded through the 
mountains, and soon found streams flowing towards the west, one 
of which was traced in that direction, by Clarke, for seventy miles ; 
they also met several parties of Indians belonging to a nation 
called Shoshonee, from whose accounts they were convinced that 
those streams were the head-waters of the Columbia. Having re- 
ceived this satisfactory information, the commanders rejoined their 
men at the head of the Jefferson ; and preparations were commenced 
for pursuing the journey by land. For this purpose, the canoes 
and a portion of the goods were concealed in caches, or covered 
pits, and a number of horses, with some guides, being procured 
from the Shoshonees, the whole body of the Americans, on the 30th 
of August, entered on the passage through the Rocky Mountains. 

Up to this period, the difficulties of the journey had been com- 
paratively light, and the privations few. But, during the three 
weeks which the Americans spent in passing the Rocky Mountains, 
they underwent, as Clarke says, " every suffering which hunger, 
cold, and fatigue, could impose." The mountains were high, and 
the passes through them rugged, and, in many places, covered with 
snow ; and their food consisted of berries, dried fish, and the meat 
of dogs or horses, of all which the supplies were scanty and preca- 
rious. They crossed many streams, some of them large, which 
emptied into the Columbia ; but their guides gave them no encour- 
agement to embark on any, until they reached one called the 
KoosTcooskee, in the latitude of 43 degrees 34 minutes, about four 
hundred miles, by their route, from the head of navigation of the 
Missouri. 

At this place, they constructed five canoes, and, leaving their 
horses in charge of a tribe of Indians of the Chopunnish nation, 
they, on the 7th of October, began the descent of the Kooskooskee. 
Three days afterwards, they entered the principal southern branch 



286 DESCENT OF THE COLUMBIA. [1805. 

of the Columbia, to which they gave the name of Lewis ; and, in seven 
days more, they reached the point of its confluence with the larger 
northern branch, called by them the Clarice. They were then fairly 
launched on the Great River of the West, and passing down it, 
through many dangerous rapids, they, on the 31st, arrived at the 
Falls of the Columbia, where it rushes through the lofty chain of 
mountains nearest the Pacific. Some of their canoes descended 
these falls in safety ; the others and the goods were carried around 
by land, and replaced in the water at the foot of the cataract. At 
a short distance below, the tides of the Pacific were observed ; and, 
on the 15th of November, the whole party landed on Cape Disap- 
pointment, at the mouth of the Columbia, about six hundred miles 
from the place at which they had embarked on its waters, and more 
than four thousand, by their route, from the mouth of the Missouri. 

The winter, or rather the rainy season, having commenced when 
the party reached the mouth of the Columbia, it became necessary 
for them to remain there until the following spring. They accord- 
ingly prepared a habitation on the north side of the river, eleven 
miles in a straight line from Cape Disappointment, from which they 
were, however, soon driven by the floods ; they then found a suit- 
able spot on the south side, a little higher up, where they formed 
their dwelling, called by them Fort Clatsop, and remained until 
the middle of March, 1806. During this period, the cold was by 
no means severe, less so, indeed, than on the Atlantic shore of the 
continent ten degrees farther south ; but the rains were incessant 
and violent, and the river being at the same time generally too 
much agitated by the winds and the waves from the ocean for the 
Americans to venture on it in their canoes, they were often unable 
to obtain provisions, either by hunting or fishing. The Clatsop 
Indians who occupy the south side of the Columbia, at its mouth, 
and the ChinnooTcs, on the opposite shore, conducted themselves 
peaceably ; but their prices for every thing which they offered for 
sale were so high, that no trade could be carried on with tliem. 
The party were, in consequence of the rains, seldom able to quit 
their encampment ; and the only excursion of any length made by 
them during the winter, was as far as the promontory overhanging 
the Pacific, thirty miles south of the Columbia, which they called 
Clarice'' s Point of View, near the Cape Lookout of Meares. 

On the 23d of March, 1806, the Americans commenced the 
ascent of the Columbia in canoes, on their return to the United 
States. Proceeding slowly up the river, they carefully examined 



1806.] RETURN or LEWIS AND CLARKE. 287 

its shores, and discovered a large stream, called by the natives the 
Cowelitz, flowing into it from the north, at the distance of sixty 
miles from the ocean. Thirty miles higher up, they found another 
and much larger stream, joining the Columbia on the south side, 
the Indian name of which was supposed to bo Multonomah ; it is 
now, however, universally known as the JViUamet, and on its banks 
are situated the most flourishing settlements as yet formed by citi- 
zens of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains. 

In the middle of April, the exploring party reached the foot of 
the great rapids, below the Falls of the Columbia, where they aban- 
doned their canoes, and began their journey by land, on horses 
purchased from the Indians. In this way, they traversed the gap or 
defile in the mountains through which the river pours its floods, 
and then, pursuing their course over the elevated plains east of that 
ridge, they arrived, on the 8th of May, at the point on the Koos- 
kooskee River, where they had left their horses, and first embarked 
on the waters of the Columbia, in the preceding year. From this 
place, they continued on horseback due eastward, through the 
Rocky Mountains, to the Clarke River, which flows for some dis- 
tance in a nortiierly direction from its sources, before turning 
southward to join the other branches of the Columbia ; and there 
it was agreed that the chiefs of the expedition should separate, to 
meet again at the confluence of the Yellowstone witii the Missouri. 

The separation took place on the 3d of July, near the point at 
which the Clarke River is crossed by the 47th parallel of latitude, 
due west of the Falls of the Missouri. Captain Lewis and his 
party proceeded some distance northward, down the Clarke, and 
then, quitting it, crossed the Rocky Mountains to the head-waters of 
Maria River, which empties into the Missouri just below the falls. 
There they met a band of Indians belonging to the numerous and 
daring race called the Black-foot, who infest the plains at the base 
of the mountains, and are ever at war with all otlier tribes ; these 
savages attempted to seize the rifles of the Americans, and Lewis 
was obliged to kill one of them before they desisted. The party 
then hastened to the Missouri, which they reached at the falls, and 
thence floated down to the mouth of the Yellowstone. 

Meanwhile, the others, under Clarke, rode southward up the 
valley of the Clarke River, to its sources ; and, after exploring 
several passes in the mountains between that point and the head- 
waters of the Yellowstone, they embarked in canoes on the latter 



288 IMPORTANCE OF THE DISCOVERIES. [1806. 

stream, and descended it to the Missouri, where they joined Lewis 
and his men on the 12th of August. 

From the point of confluence of the two rivers, the whole body 
moved down the Missouri ; and, on the 23d of September, 1806, 
they arrived in safety at St. Louis, having travelled, in the course 
of their expedition, more than nine thousand miles. 

The preceding sketch of the long and difficult expedition of 
Lewis and Clarke will serve to show the general course of their 
routes between the Mississippi and the Pacific. As to the priority 
and extent of their geographical discoveries, a few words will 
suffice. The Missouri had been ascended, by the French and 
Spanish traders, to the mouth of the Yellowstone, long before 
Lewis and Clarke embarked on it ; but ample proofs are afforded, 
by the maps drawn prior to their expedition, that no information 
even approximating to correctness had been obtained respecting the 
river and the countries in its vicinity. With regard to the territory 
between the great Falls of the Missouri and those of the Columbia, 
and the branches of either river joining it above its falls, we have 
no accounts whatsoever earlier than those derived from the journals 
of the American exploring party. The Tacoutchee-Tessee, navi- 
gated by Mackenzie m 1793, and supposed by him to be a branch 
of the Columbia, was afterwards discovered to be a different stream, 
now called Fraser^s River, emptying into the Strait of Fuca ; and 
no evidence has been adduced of the passage of any white person 
through the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, 
north of California, from the time of Mackenzie's journey to that 
of the expedition of Lewis and Clarke.* 

Politically, the expedition was an announcement to the world of 
the intention of the American government to occupy and settle the 
countries explored, to which certainly no other nation except Spain 
could advance so strong a claim on the grounds of discovery or of 
contiguity ; and the government and people of the United States 
\ thus virtually incurred the obligation to prosecute and carry into 

* The journal of the expedition of Lewis and Clarke was not published until 1814, 
when it appeared nearly in the same state in which it came from the hands of Lewis, 
shortly before the melancholy termination of his existence. It affords abundant proofs 
of the powers of observation possessed by those who were engaged in the enterprise; 
and the mass of facts, geographically, commercially, and politically important, which 
it contains, causes it still to be regarded as the principal source of information respect- 
ing the geography, the natural history, and tlie aboriginal inhabitants, of the portions 
of America traversed by the Missouri and the Columbia. 



1806.] pike's expedition. 289 

fulfilment the great ends for whicli the labors of Lewis and Clarke 
were the first preparatory measures. 

During the absence of Lewis and Clarke, other persons were 
engaged, under the orders of the government of the United States, 
in exploring different parts of the interior of Louisiana. Lieutenant 
Pike ascended the Mississippi to its head-waters, near the 48th 
degree of latitude, where he obtained much useful information 
respecting the course of that stream, and the numbers, characters, 
and dispositions, of the Indians in its vicinity, as well as concerning 
the trade and establishments of the North- West Company in that 
quarter. Having completed this expedition, Pike, in 1806, under- 
took another, in the course of which he travelled south-westward 
from the mouth of the Missouri, to the upper waters of the Arkan- 
sas, the Red River, and the Rio Bravo del Norte : on the latter 
river, he and his party were made prisoners by the Spaniards of 
Santa Fe, who carried them southward as far as the city of Chi- 
huahua, and thence, through Texas, to the United States. The 
Red and Washita Rivers were at the same time explored, to a con- 
siderable distance from the Mississippi, by Messrs. Dunbar, Hunter, 
and Sibley, whose journals, as well as those of Pike, subsequently 
published, contain many interesting descriptions of those parts of 
America. 

Thus, within three or four years after Louisiana came into the 
possession of the United States, it ceased to be an unknown region, 
and the principal features of the territory drained by the Columbia 

were displayed. 

37 



290 



CHAPTER XIV. 

1806 TO 1815. 

First Establishments of the North- West Company in the Countries north of the 
Columbia — Pacific Fur Company formed at New York — Plan of its Founder — 
First Expedition from New York in the Tonquin — Foundation of Astoria near the 
Mouth of the Columbia River — Destruction of the Tonquin by the Savages — 
March of the Party under Hunt and Crooks across the Continent — Arrival of the 
Beaver in the Columbia — War between the United States and Great Britain fatal 
to the Enterprise — Establishments of the Pacific Company sold to the North- 
West Company — Astoria taken by the British — Dissolution of the Pacific 
Company. 

The expeditions of Lewis and Clarke, and Pike, did not fail to 
attract the attention, and to excite the jealousy, of the British 
government and trading companies. Pike had restrained the incur- 
sions of the North-West Company's people into the territories of 
the Upper Mississippi, and had lessened their influence over the 
Indians inhabiting those regions. From the moment when Lewis 
and Clarke appeared on the Missouri, their movements were 
watched by the agents of the British Association ; and, so soon 
as it was ascertained that they were ordered to explore the Colum- 
bia, preparations were made to anticipate the Americans in the 
settlement of that portion of the continent, for which the expedition 
of those officers was evidently intended to open the way. A party 
of the North- West Company's men was accordingly despatched, in 
1805, under the direction of Mr. Laroque, to establish posts and 
occupy territories on the Columbia ; but this party proceeded no 
farther than the Mandan villages on the Missouri. In the following 
year, 1806, another party was despatched from Fort Chipewyan, 
under Mr. Simon Fraser, who crossed the Rocky Mountains near 
the passage of the Peace River, and formed a trading establishment 
on a small lake, now called Frnser's Lake, situated in the 54th 
degree of latitude. This was the first settlement or post of any kind 
made hy British subjects west of the Rocky Mountains. Other posts 
were subsequently formed in the same country, which, in 1808, 
received from the traders the name of New Caledonia ; but it does 



1806.] FIRST BRITISH POSTS IN NEW CALEDONIA. 291 

not appear, from any evidence as yet adduced, that any part of the 
waters of the Columbia, or of the country through which they flow, 
was seen by persons in the service of the North- West Company 
until 1811.* 

In the mean time, several establishments had been formed by 
citizens of the United States on tiie Columbia and its branches. 

Before the transfer of Louisiana to the United States, the trade 
of the Missouri and the adjacent countries inhabited by the Indians, 
had been granted by the Spanish government to Manuel Lisa, a 
merchant of St. Louis, who continued to conduct it almost exclu- 
sively until 1806. After the return of Lewis and Clarke, other 
individuals engaged in the business, the competition between whom 
occasioned many and serious disputes ; until at length, in 1808, an 
association, called the Missouri Fur Company, was formed among 

* Many interesting details respecting the proceedings of the North-West Com- 
pany, and the geography of the parts of America in which its estabhshments are 
situated, may be found in the journal of D. W. Harmon, a native of Vermont, who 
was a partner in that company, and the superintendent of all its affairs beyond the 
Rocky Mountains for several years. This journal was published at Andover, in 
Massachusetts, in 1819, but is now nearly out of print: a review of it, containing 
many curious extracts, may be seen in the London Quarterly Review for Janu- 
ary, 1822. 

Witli regard to the dates of the earliest establishments of the North- West 
Company beyond the Rocky Mountains, the following extracts from Harmon's 
journal may be considered as decisive evidence : — 

" Saturday, November 24th, 1804. — Some people have just arrived from Montague 
la Basse, with a letter from Mr. Chaboillez, who informs me that two captains, Clarke 
and Lewis, with one hundred and eighty soldiers, have arrived at the Mandan village, 
on the Missouri River, which place is situated about three days' distance from the 
residence of Mr. Chaboillez. They have invited Mr. Chaboillez to visit them. It is 
said that, on their arrival, they hoisted the American flag, and informed the natives 
that their object was not to trade, but merely to explore the country, and that, as soon 
as the navigation shall open, they design to continue their route across the Rocky 
Mountains, and thence descend to the Pacific Ocean. 

" Wednesday, April lOtk, 1805. — While at Montague la Basse, Mr. Chaboillez in- 
duced me to consent to undertake a long and arduous tour of discovery. I am to leave 
that place about the beginning of June, accompanied by six or seven Canadiiins, and 
two or three Indians. The first place at which we shall stop will be the Mandan 
village, on the Missouri River ; thence we shall steer our course towards the Rocky 
Mountains, accompanied by a number of the Mandan Indians, who proceed in that 
direction, every spring, to meet and trade with another tribe of Indians, who reside 
on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. [This journey I never undertook : a 
Mr. La Roque attempted to make this tour, but went no farther than the Mandan 
village.] " 

At page 281, Harmon says, " The part of the country west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, with which I am acquainted, has, ever since the North- West Company first 
made an establishment there, which was in 1806, gone by the name of JVcfc Cale- 
donia,''' &c. And in many places he speaks of Mr. Simon Fraser as having led the 
first company of traders beyond the Rocky Mountains, in 1806. 



292 FIRST TRADING POSTS ON THE COLUMBIA. [ISIO. 

the principal traders in that part of America, by which posts were 
estabhshed on the Upper Mississippi, the Missouri, and even beyond 
the Rocky Mountains. The trading post founded by Mr. Henry, 
one of the agents of the Missouri Company, on a branch of the Lewis 
River, the great southern arm of the Columbia, appears to have been 
the earliest establishment of any kind made by people of a civilized 
nation in the territory drained by the latter stream ; the enmity of 
the savages in its vicinity, and the difficulty of obtaining provisions, 
however, obliged Mr. Henry to abandon it in 1810. 

In that year, an attempt was made by Captain Smith, the com- 
mander of the ship Albatross, from Boston, to found a post for trade 
with the Indians at a place called Oak Point, on the south bank of 
the Columbia, about forty miles from its mouth. For this purpose a 
house was built and a garden was laid out and planted there ; but 
the site was badly chosen in all respects, and the scheme was aban- 
doned before the close of the year. 

In the same year, 1810, an association was formed at New York, 
for the prosecution of the fur trade in the central and north-western 
parts of the continent, in connection with the China trade, of which 
a particular account will be presented, as the transactions attend 
ing the enterprise led to important political results. 

This association was called the Pacific Fur Company.* At its 
head was John Jacob Astor, a German merchant of New York, 
who had been for many years extensively engaged in the commerce 
of the Pacific and China, and also in the trade with the Indian coun- 
tries in the centre of the American continent, and, by his prudence 
and skill, had thus accumulated an immense fortune, ere he passed 
the meridian of life. He devised the scheme ; he advanced the 
capital requisite for carrying it into execution, and he directed all 

* The following account of the proceedings of the Pacific Fur Company is derived 
chiefly from — Adventures on tlie Columbia River, &c., by Ross Cox. London, 1831. 
— Relation d'un Voyage a la Cote Nord-Ouest, de I'Amerique Septentrionale, dans les 
Annees 1810-14, par Gabriel Franchcre. Montreal, 1820. [Franchere went out 
with the first party in the Tonquin ; Cox went out in the Beaver, and they both 
returned to Canada by way of the lakes.] — Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise 
beyond the Rocky Mountains, by Wasliington Irving, Philadelphia, 1836 ; the latter 
author gives the most complete account of the circumstances, particularly of the 
adventures of the parties under Hunt, Crooks, and Stuart, derived from their state- 
ments and the papers in the possession of Mr. Astor, to which he had access. In addi- 
tion to these autliorities, several letters and papers, addressed by Mr. Astor to the execu- 
tive of the United States, have been examined, and some communications have been 
personally received from that gentleman. One of his letters, containing a summary 
of the circiunstances connected with his enterprise, will he found among the Proofs 
and Illustrations, at the end of this volume, under the letter G. 



1810.] astor's plans for monopolizing the china trade. 293 

the operations. His first objects were to concentrate in the hands 
of the company the fur trade of every part of the unsettled territo- 
ries of America claimed by the United States, and also the supply 
of the Russian establishments on the North Pacific, which was to be 
conducted agreeably to arrangements made with the Russian Amer- 
ican Company, similar to those proposed by the government of St. 
Petersburg to the cabinet at Washington, as already mentioned ; and 
by the attainment of these first objects, he expected to be able to con- 
trol, if not exclusively to possess, the whole commerce between the 
ports of China and those of America, and of a large portion of Europe. 

For these purposes, posts were to be established on the Missouri, 
the Columbia, and the coasts of the Pacific contiguous /o the latter 
river, at which places the furs were to be collected by trade with 
the Indians, or by hunters in the employ of the company. The 
posts were to be supplied with the merchandise required, either by 
way of the Missouri, or by ships despatched from the ports of the 
United States to the North Pacific ; and the furs collected were to be 
carried either down the Missouri to the Atlantic ports of the Union, 
or westward to the establishments of the company on the Pacific. 
The merchandise sent to the Pacific would be discharged, in the first 
instance, at a principal factory, to be founded at some point most 
convenient for distributing the articles among the interior posts, 
and for receiving the furs from those places ; and the vessels 
would then take in cargoes of furs, which they would transport 
to Canton. Vessels would also be sent, either directly from the 
United States, or from the principal factory on the Pacific, to the 
Russian American establishments, with provisions and other articles, 
for which furs were to be received in payment ; and from Canton 
these vessels would bring to Europe or America teas, silks, and other 
Chinese goods, procured in exchange for their furs. It is scarcely 
necessary to ad \, that all these movements were to be conducted 
with order and regularity, and at stated periods, so as to prevent loss 
of time and labor, or injury to the various articles transported. 

The number of shares in the company was to be one hundred ; 
of these half were retained by Mr. Astor, who was to advance the 
funds necessary for the first operations, and to manage the con- 
cerns at New York ; the remaining shares being divided among the 
other partners, who were to conduct the business in the western 
territories, on the Pacific, and at Canton. The association, if 
prosperous, was to continue twenty years, after which it might be 
prolonged ; but it might be abandoned by any of the partners, or 



294 PACIFIC FUR company's operations. [1810. 

dissolved, within the first five years, Mr. Astor bearing all the 
losses incurred during that period. 

This was certainly an extensive and complicated scheme ; but it 
appeared, at the time when it was devised, to be perfectly practicable. 
The territories in which the new establishments were to be formed, 
had never been occupied : there could be no doubt that the Russians 
would gladly agree to the proposed arrangements for the trade with 
their factories ; the demand for furs at Canton was regular, and suf- 
ficiently great to insure the superiority, in that market, to those who 
could control the supply ; and the Americans would possess, in 
China and on the Pacific, a decided advantage over the British, 
whose flag was then rarely seen in the Pacific, in consequence of 
the monopoly enjoyed by the East India Company. Moreover, there 
was then no prospect of a material change in the political positions 
of the principal nations of the world. 

The only party from which the Pacific Company could apprehend 
any immediate and serious difficulties, was the North-West Company 
of Montreal. The resources of that body were in every respect 
inferior to Mr. Astor's ; but, in order to prevent rivalry, he communi- 
cated his intentions confidentially to its directors, and offered them 
an interest to the extent of one third in his enterprise : they, how- 
ever, rejected his proposal, and took measures, as will be shown 
hereafter, to forestall him. Was Mr. Astor — a citizen of the United 
States — justifiable in thus offering to an association of British sub- 
jects, noted for its enmity to his adopted country, a share of the ad- 
vantages to be obtained under the flag of the United States, from ter- 
ritories exclusively belonging to the United States, or of which the 
exclusive possession by the United States was evidently essential to 
the welfare and advancement of the republic ? 

Having matured his scheme, Mr. Astor engaged as partners, 
clerks, and voyageurs, a number of Scotchmen and Canadians, who 
had been in the service of the North- West Company, and afterwards 
a number rather greater, of other persons, principally natives of the 
United States. The partners first admitted were Alexander Mackay, 
who had accompanied Mackenzie in his expedition to the Pacific in 
1793, Duncan Macdougal, and Donald Mackenzie, all Scotchmen, 
formerly belonging to the North- West Company : these persons 
signed tlie constitution or articles of agreement of the Pacific Com- 
pany, with Mr. Astor, on the 23d of June, 1810 ; having, however, 
previously communicated the whole plan of the enterprise to Mr. 
Jackson, the minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain in the United 



1810,] PARTNERS IN THE PACIFIC COxMPANY. 295 

States, who quieted all their scruples as to engaging in it, by assur- 
ing them that, " in case of a tvar heixvccn the two nations, they would 
be respected as British subjects and merchants." The partners sub- 
sequently admitted were David and Robert Stuart, and Ramsay 
Crooks, Scotchmen, who had also been in the service of the North- 
West Company, and Wilson Price Hunt, John Clarke, and Robert 
Maclellan, citizens of the United States. The majority of the clerks 
were Americans ; among the others were Ross Cox, an Englishman, 
and Gabriel Franchere, a Canadian, each of whom has written an 
interesting history of the enterprise. The voyageurs were nearly all 
from Canada. Mr. Hunt, a native of New Jersey, was chosen as 
chief agent of the company, to superintend all its concerns on the 
western side of America for five years. 

Thus it will be seen that, although the chief direction of the con- 
cerns of the Pacific Fur Company, in New York and on the western 
side of the continent, were at first intrusted to American citizens, 
yet the majority not only of the inferior servants, but also of the 
partners, were British subjects, nearly all of whom had been in the 
service of a rival British association. 

The preparations for commencing the enterprise having been 
completed, four of the partners, Messrs. Mackay, Macdougal, David 
Stuart, and Robert Stuart, with eleven clerks, thirteen Canadian 
voyageurs, and five mechanics, all British subjects, took their 
departure from New York for the mouth of the Columbia River, in 
September, 1810, in the ship Tonquin, commanded by Jonathan 
Thorne. In January following, the second detachment, conducted 
by Mr. Hunt, the chief agent, and Messrs. Maclellan, Mackenzie, 
and Crooks, set out for the same point, by way of the Missouri River ; 
and in October, 1811, the ship Beaver, under Captain Sowles, car- 
ried out from New York, to the North Pacific, Mr. Clarke, with six 
clerks and a number of other persons. 

Mr. Astor had already, in 1809, despatched the ship Enterprise, 
under Captain Ebbets, an intelligent and experienced seaman and 
trader, to make observations at various places on the north-west 
coasts of America, and particularly at the Russian settlements, and 
to prepare the way for the new establishments. He, also, in 1811, 
sent an agent to St. Petersburg, by whose means he concluded an 
arrangement with the Russian American Company, to the effect 
that his association should have the exclusive privileges, of supplying 
the Russian establishments on the North Pacific with merchandise, 
receiving furs in payment, and of transporting to Canton such 



296 THE ASTORIA ENTERPRISE BEGUN. [1811. 

Other furs as the Russians might choose to ship for that port, on 
their own account, provided that the Americans should visit no 
other parts of the coast north of a certain latitude. 

The Tonquin passed around Cape Horn, and in February, 1811, 
arrived at Owyhee, where Macdougal, who was to superintend the 
affairs of the company on the Pacific and its coasts until the arrival 
of Hunt, endeavored to conclude a treaty of amity and commerce 
with King Tamahamaha : but that aged chief, whom experience had 
rendered distrustful, refused to bind himself by any contract with 
the white men ; and he would only promise to furnish the vessels of 
the company with provisions on the same terms with other vessels 
— namely, on payment of the value in Spanish dollars. Having 
obtained the necessary supplies in this way, and taken on board a 
dozen of the islanders, who were permitted by their sovereign to 
engage in the service of the Pacific Company, Captain Thorne sailed 
for the mouth of the Columbia, where he effected an entrance on 
the 24th of March, with great danger and difficulty, after losing 
three of his men, who attempted to reach the shore in a boat. 

The passengers immediately disembarked on the shore of Baker's 
Bay, on the north side of the Columbia, just within Cape Disappoint- 
ment, where sheds were built for their temporary accommodation. A 
few days afterwards, the partners set off in search of a place proper 
for the establishment of a factory ; and they soon selected for that ob- 
ject a spot on the south bank of the river, distant about ten miles from 
the ocean, which had received from Broughton, in 1792, the name of 
Point George. To this place the Tonquin was removed ; and, her 
goods and materials being landed, preparations were commenced for 
the erection of a fort and other houses, and for building a small 
vessel, of which the frame had been brought out from New York. In 
the course of two months, these works were so far advanced, that 
the assistance of the ship's crew was no longer needed ; and Captain 
Thorne accordingly sailed on the 5th of June for the northern coasts, 
carrying with him Mr. Mackay who was to conduct the trade, and 
to make arrangements with the Russians, Mr. Lewis one of the 
clerks, and an Indian who spoke English, to serve as interpreter. 

During the ensuing summer, much progress was made in the 
buildings for the factory, which, in honor of the head of the com- 
pany, was named Astoria. A large piece of ground was cleared 
and laid out as a garden, in which various vegetables were planted ; 
the small vessel was finished and launched ; trade was carried on 
with the neighboring Indians, and also with others from the higher 



1811.] DAVID THOMPSON VISITS ASTORIA. 297 

parts of the river, who gave skins, fish, and game, in exchange for 
manufactured articles ; and every thing, in fine, seemed to promise 
success to the enterprise. 

While the Astorians were thus engaged, they were unexpectedly 
visited, on the 15th of July, by a party of the North- West Company's 
men, under the direction of Mr. David Thompson, the surveyor or 
astronomer of that body. These men had been despatched from 
Canada in the preceding year, with the object of forestalhng the 
Americans in the occupation of the mouth of the Columbia, wliich 
they hoped to effect before the end of that season : but they were 
so long delayed in seeking a passage through the Rocky Mountains, 
that they were obliged to winter in that ridge, near the northernmost 
sources of the Columbia, under the 52d parallel of latitude ; whence 
they hastened down the river in the spring of 1811, building huts 
and erecting flags at various places, \yy^wa.y Q[jqkingj^ossessioii of 
th e cou ntry. They were received at the fort not as rivals, but as 
friends ; and were treated with the utmost respect and hospitality, 
during their stay, by their old companion, the superintendent, 
Macdougal, who, moreover, furnished them with provisions, and 
even with goods, for trading on their departure up the river. 

Mr. Thompson and his followers in this expedition were, from 
all the accounts as yet made public, the first white persons who 
navigated the northern branch of the Columbia, or traversed any 
part of the country drained by it. The British commissioners, in the 
negotiation with the American plenipotentiary at London, in 1826, 
nevertheless, attempted to place Mr. Thompson's expedition on 
an equality, not only asrto extent of discovery, but also as to date, 
with that of Lewis and Clarke ; and to represent tiie establishments 
which he is said to have founded on his way down the Columbia as 
prior to those formed by the Pacific Company. In their statement 
of the claims of Great Britain to territories west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, they say* — "The United States further pretend that their 
claim to the country in question is strengthened and confirmed by 
the discovery of the sources of the Columbia, and by the exploration 
of its course to the sea by Lewis and Clarke, in 1805-6. In reply 
to this allegation, Great Britain affirms, and can distinctly prove, 
that, if not before, at least in the same and subsequent years, her 
North- West Trading Company had, by means of their agent, Mr. 
Thompson, already established their posts among the Flat-head and 

* See the British statement, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part 
of this volume, under the letter H. 

38 



298 MARCH OF HUNT, MaCLELLAN, AND CROOKS. [1812. 

Kootanie tribes, on the head-waters or main brauch of the Columbia, 
and were gradually extending them down the principal stream of 
that river ; thus giving to Great Britain in this particular, as in the 
discovery of the mouth of the river, a title of parity at least, if not 
of priority of discovery, as opposed to the United States. It was 
from these posts that, having heard of the American establishment 
forming in 1811 at the mouth of the river, Mr. Thompson hastened 
thither, descending the river to ascertain the nature of that estab- 
lishment." The expression " if not hefore, at least in the same and 
following years" used here, is rather indefinite. In order to show 
how it should be understood conformably with truth, it will be 
proper to repeat — that Lewis and Clarke descended the Columbia 
and reached its mouth before the middle of November, 1805 — - 
that the North- West Company made their first establishment beyond 
the Rocky Mountains, at some distance north of any part of the Co- 
lumbia, in 1806 — that American establishments were formed on 
the Columbia in 1809, 1810, and 1811 — and, finally, that Thompson 
did not arrive among the Kootanie and Flat-head tribes until the 
spring of 1811, after the foundation of Astoria. 

Mr. Thompson and his people were accompanied, on their return, 
by a party from the factory, under Mr. David Stuart, who established 
a post at the confluence of a stream, called the OMnagan, with the 
north branch of the Columbia, about six hundred miles above the 
mouth of the latter river, and remained there during the winter. 
The situation of those left at Astoria was, in the mean time, very un- 
pleasant, and their spirits were depressed by various circumstances. 
Their supplies of provisions were scanty and uncertain, and nothing 
was heard, for some months, of the party who were to come over land 
from the United States ; the Tonquin, which was expected to return 
to the river in September, did not appear, and rumors were brought 
by the Indians of the destruction of a ship, and the massacre of her 
crew, by the natives near the Strait of Fuca, Nothing, however, 
occurred at the factory, worthy of note, until the 18th of January, 
1812, when a portion of the detachment sent across the continent 
arrived there in the most wretched condition. 

This detachment, consisting of about sixty men, under the chief 
agent, Hunt, and the partners. Crooks, Mackenzie, and Maclellan, 
ascended the Missouri River in boats, from its moutii to the country 
of the Arickara Indians, distant about fourteen hundred miles higher ; 
during which voyage tliey were constantly annoyed by their rivals 
of the Missouri Company ; and, there quitting the river, they took a 



1812.] MARCH OF HUNT AND HIS PARTY TO THE COLUMBIA. 299 

westward course to the Rocky Mountains, which they crossed in 
September, 1811, near the head of the Yellowstone River. On 
the western side of the ridge, they found a large stream, probably 
the main branch of the Lewis, on which they embarked in canoes, 
with the expectation of thus floating down to the Falls of the Colum- 
bia ; but ere they had proceeded far in this way, they encountered 
so many dangers and obstructions, from falls and rapids, that they 
were forced to abandon the stream and resume their march. It 
would be needless here to attempt to describe the many evils from 
hunger, thirst, cold, and fatigue, which these men underwent during 
their wanderings through that dreary wilderness of snow-clad moun- 
tains, in the winter of 1811-12: suffice it to say, that, after several 
of their number had perished from one or more of these causes, the 
others reached Astoria in separate parties, in the first months of 
1812, having spent more than a year in coming from St. Louis. 
At the factory they found shelter, warmtii, and rest ; but they had 
little food, until the fish began to enter the river, when they obtained 
abundant supplies of pilchards, of the most delicious flavor. 

On the 5th of May, 1812, the ship Beaver,* commanded by Cap- 
tain Sowles, arrived in the Columbia, from New York, bringing 
the third detachment of persons in the service of the Pacific Com- 
pany, under the direction of Mr. Clarke, and twenty-six natives of 

* Ross Cox, who arrived at Astoria in the Beaver, in May, 1812, gives the follow- 
ing account of the establishment as it then appeared : — 

" The spot selected for the fort [Astoria] was a handsome eminence, called Point 
George, which commanded an extensive view of the majestic Columbia in front, 
bounded by the bold and thickly-wooded northern shore. On the right, about three 
miles distant, a long, high, and rocky peninsula, covered with timber, called Tongue 
Point, extended a considerable distance into the river from the southern side, with 
which it was connected by a narrow neck of land ; while, on the extreme left, Cape 
Disappointment, with the bar and its terrific chain of breakers, were distinctly visible. 
The buildings consisted of apartments for the proprietors and clerks, with a capacious 
dining-hall for both ; extensive warehouses for the trading goods and furs, a provision 
store, a trading shop, smith's forge, carpenter's shop, &c. ; the whole surrounded by 
stockades, forming a square, and reaching about fifteen feet above the ground. A 
gallery ran around the stockades, in which loopholes were pierced, sufficiently large 
for musketry ; two strong bastions, built of logs, commanded the four sides of the 
square ; each bastion had two stories, in which a number of chosen men slept every 
night; a six pounder was placed in the lower story of each, and they were both well 
provided with small arms. Immediately in front of the fort was a gentle declivity, 
sloping down to the river's side, which had been turned into an excellent kitchen 
garden ; and, a few hundred rods to the left, a tolerable wharf had been run out, by 
which bateaux and boats were enabled, at low water, to land their cargoes with- 
out sustaining any damage. An impenetrable forest of gigantic pines rose in the 
rear, and the ground was covered with a thick underwood of brier and whortleberry, 
mtermingled with fern and honeysuckle." 



300 DESTRUCTION OF THE TONQ,UIN BY SAVAGES. [1812. 

the Sandwich Islands, who were engaged ,as seamen or laborers. 
The Beaver, moreover, brought from Owyhee a letter which had 
been left there by Captain Ebbets, of the ship Enterprise, contain- 
ing positive information of the destruction of the Tonquin and her 
crew by the savages on the coast near the Strait of Fuca ; the 
particulars of this melancholy affair were not, however, learned 
until August of the following year, when they were communicated 
at Astoria by the Indian who had gone in the Tonquin as inter- 
preter, and was the only survivor of those on board the ill-fated ship. 

According to this interpreter's account, the Tonquin, after quit- 
ting the river, sailed northward along the coast of the continent, 
and anchored, in the middle of June, 1811, opposite a village on 
the Bay of Clyoquot, near the entrance of the Strait of Fuca. She 
was there immediately surrounded by crowds of Indians in canoes, 
who continued for some days to trade in the most peaceable manner, 
so as to disarm Captain Thome and Mr. M^Kay of all suspicions. 
At length, either in consequence of an affront given to a chief by 
the captain, or with the view of plundering the vessel, the natives 
embraced an opportunity when the men were dispersed on or below 
the decks, in the performance of their duties, and in a moment put 
to death every one of the crew and passengers, except the inter- 
preter, who leaped into a canoe, and was saved by some women, and 
the clerk, Mr. Lewis, who retreated, with a few sailors, to the cabin. 
The survivors of the crew, by the employment of their fire-arms, 
succeeded in driving the savages from the ship ; and, in the night, 
four of them quitted her in a boat, leaving on board Mr. Lewis and 
some others, who were severely wounded. On the following day, 
the natives again crowded around and on board the Tonquin ; and 
while they were engaged in rifling her, she was blown up, most 
probably by the wounded men left below deck. The seamen who 
had endeavored to escape in the boat were soon retaken, and put 
to death in the most cruel manner, by the Indians ; the interpreter 
was preserved, and remained in slavery two years, at the end of 
wliich time he was suffered to depart. 

The loss of this ship was a severe blow to the Pacific Company ; 
but the partners at Astoria were consoled by the reflections, that 
their chief could bear pecuniary damages to a far greater extent 
without injury to his credit, and that, if their enterprise should prove 
successful, ample indemnification would soon be obtained. It was 
tueicruie delermined that Mr. Hunt should embark in the Beaver, 
to superintend the trade along the northern coasts, and visit the 



1813.] WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND G. BRITAIN. 301 

Russian establishments, as Mr. Mackay would have done, but for 
the destruction of the Tonquin ; and he accordingly took his de- 
parture in that ship in August, 1812, leaving the superintendence 
of the affairs at the factory, as before, in the hands of Mr. Mac- 
dougal. A party was at the same time despatched to the upper 
country, by which another trading post was established on the 
SpoJcan, a stream joining the northern branch of the Columbia, 
about six hundred and fifty miles from the ocean ; and accounts of 
all the transactions, to that period, were transmitted to the United 
States, under the care of Messrs. Crooks, Maclellan, and Robert 
Stuart, who recrossed the continent, and reached New York in the 
spring of 1813, after encountering difficulties and dangers greater, 
in many respects, tlian those undergone in their journey to the 
Pacific. 

The trade with the Indians of the Lower Missouri was, in the 
mean time, going on prosperously ; provisions were abundant at 
Astoria, and a large quantity of furs was collected there, in expecta- 
tion of tiie arrival of the Beaver, which was to take them to Canton 
in the ensuing spring. The hopes of the partners were thus revived, 
and they had daily additional grounds for anticipating success in their 
undertaking, when, in January, 1813, they learned that the United 
States had declared war against Great Britain in June previous. 
This news spread an instantaneous gloom over the minds of all, 
which was increased by information received from a trading vessel, 
that the Beaver was lying at Canton, blockaded by a British ship of 
war : and soon afterwards, Messrs. Mactavish and Laroque, partners 
in the North- West Company, arrived near Astoria, with sixteen men, 
bringing accounts of the success of the British arms on the northern 
frontiers of the United States, and of the blockade of all the 
Atlantic coasts of the latter country by British squadrons. 

Notwithstanding these circumstances, Laroque and Mactavish 
were received and treated by Macdougal and Mackenzie, the only 
partners of the Pacific Company then at Astoria, with the same 
attention and hospitality which had been shown to Thompson in 
the preceding year ; and were supplied with provisions and goods 
for trading, as if they had been friends and allies, instead of com- 
mercial rivals and political enemies. A series of private conferences 
were then held between the chief persons of the two parties, at the 
conclusion of which, Macdougal and Mackenzie announced their 
determination that the company should be dissolved on the 1st of 
July, and sent messengers to communicate the fact to the other 



302 hunt's negotiations with baranof. [1813. 

partners, Stuart and Clarke, at the Okinagan and Spokan posts. 
The latter gentleman, on receiving this news, hastened to the 
factory, and there strongly opposed the determination to abandon 
the enterprise ; and it was at length agreed among them, that the 
establishments should be maintained a few months longer, at the 
end of which time, the company should be dissolved, unless assist- 
ance were received from the United States. Three of the clerks, 
including Ross Cox, however, immediately quitted the concern, 
and, entering the service of the North- West Company, took their 
departure for the upper country with Laroque and Mactavish, 
in July. 

From the United States no assistance came. The ship Lark was 
despatched from New York, in March, 1813, with men and goods 
for the Columbia ; but she was wrecked in October following, near 
one of the Sandwich Islands, on which the captain, Northrup, and 
crew succeeded in effecting a landing. The American government 
also determined, in consequence of the representations of Mr. Astor, 
to send the frigate Adams to the North Pacific, for the protection 
of the infant establishment ; but, just as that ship was about to sail 
from New York, it became necessary to transfer her crew to Lake 
Ontario, and the blockade of the coasts of the United States by the 
British rendered all further efforts to convey succors to Astoria 
unavailing. 

Li the mean time, Mr. Hunt, the chief agent, who had sailed 
from the Columbia in the Beaver, in August, 1812, as already men- 
tioned, visited the principal Russian establishments on the north- 
west coasts of America, and the adjacent islands, and collected a 
large quantity of furs, besides concluding arrangements highly 
advantageous to the Pacific Company, with Governor Baranof,* at 
Sitka. It was then agreed between Mr. Hunt and Captain Sowles, 
that the Beaver should proceed, by way of the Sandwich Islands, to 
Canton, instead of returning to the Columbia, as had been previous- 
ly determined ; and this was done, though Hunt went no farther in 
her than to Woahoo, one of the Sandwich group, where he remained 
several months, waiting for some vessel to carry him to Astoria. 
At length, in June, 1813, the ship Albatross, of Boston, arrived at 



* An amusing account of the negotiations between Hunt and Baranof is given in 
Mr. Irving's Astoria. The chief agent of the Pacific Company appears to have been 
in as much danger from the "potations pottle deep" of raw rum and burning punch, 
which accompanied each of his interviews with the governor of Russian America, aa 
from hunger, thirst, savages, or storms, during his whole expedition. 



1813.] ASTORIA SOLD TO THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY. 303 

Woahoo, from China, bringing information of the war between the 
United States and Great Britain, and also that the Beaver was 
blockaded by a British ship at Canton ; on learning which, Mr. 
Hunt chartered the Albatross, and proceeded in her to the Colum- 
bia, where he arrived on the 4tii of August. 

Mr. Hunt was astounded on learning the resolution adopted by 
the other partners at Astoria during his absence, which he endeav- 
ored to induce them to change ; but, finding them determined, he 
reluctantly acceded to it himself, and, after a few days, he re- 
embarked in the Albatross, for the Sandwich Islands, in search of 
some vessel to convey the property of the Pacific Company to a 
place of safety. At the Sandwich Islands no vessel could be found ; 
and Hunt accordingly continued in the Albatross until she arrived 
at Nooahevah, (one of the Washington Islands, discovered by 
Ingraham, in 1791,) where he learned from Commodore David 
Porter, who was lying there in the American frigate Essex, that a 
large British squadron, under Commodore Hillyar, was on its way 
to the Columbia. This news caused Hunt to hasten back to the 
Sandwich Islands, which he reached in December, soon after the 
wreck of the Lark ; and, having there chartered a small brig, called 
the Pedler, he sailed in her to Astoria, where he arrived in 
February, 1814. 

The fate of the Pacific Company, and its establishments in North- 
West America, had, however, been decided some time before the 
Pedler reached Astoria. 

Soon after the departure of Hunt, Mr. Mactavish and his followers 
of the North-West Company again appeared at Astoria, where they 
expected to meet a ship called the Isaac Todd, which had sailed 
from London in March, laden with goods, and under convoy of a 
British squadron, charged " to take and destroy every thing Amer- 
ican on the north-west coast." They were received as before, 
and allowed to pitch their camp unmolested near the factory ; and 
private conferences were held between Mactavish and Macdougal, 
the results of which were, after some days, communicated to the 
other partners, and then to the clerks of the Pacific Company. 
These results were set forth in an agreement, signed on the 
16th of October, 1813, between Messrs. Mactavish and Alexander 
Stuart, on the one part, and Messrs. Macdougal, Mackenzie, and 
Clarke, on the other ; by which all the " establishments, furs, and 
stock in hand," of the Pacific Company, in the country of the 



304 ASTORIA TAKEN BY THE BRITISH. [1813. 

Columbia, were sold to the North- West Company, for about fifty- 
eight thousand dollars. 

Whilst the business of valuing the furs and goods at Astoria, and 
of transferring them to their new owners, was in progress, the British 
sloop of war Raccoon appeared at the mouth of the river, under 
the command of Captain Black, who had been despatched from the 
South Pacific, by Commodore Hillyar, for the purpose of taking the 
American forts and establishments on the Columbia, and had hast- 
ened thither in expectation of securing some glory, and a rich share 
of prize-money, by the conquest. On approacliing the factory, 
however, the captain soon saw that he should gain no laurels ; and, 
after it had been formally surrendered to him by Mr. Macdougal, 
he learnt, to his infinite dissatisfaction, that its contents had become 
the property of British subjects. He could, therefore, only haul 
down the flag of the United States, and hoist that of Great Britain 
in its stead, over the establishment,* the name of which was, with 
due solemnity, changed to Fort George ; and, having given vent to 
his indignation against the partners of both companies, whom he 
loudly accused of collusion to defraud himself and his officers and 
crew of the reward due for their exertions, he sailed back to the 
South Pacific. 

The brig Pedler arrived in the Columbia, as before said, on the 
28th of February, 1814, and Mr. Hunt found Macdougal super- 
intending the factory, not, however, as chief agent of the Pacific 
Company, but as a partner of the North- West Company, into 
which he had been admitted. Hunt had, therefore, merely to 
close the concerns of the American association in that quarter, and 
to receive the bills on Montreal, given in payment for its effects ; 
after which he reembarked in the Pedler, with two of the clerks, 
and proceeded, by way of Canton and the Cape of Good Hope, to 
New York. Of the other persons who had been attached to the 
Pacific Fur Company's establishments, some were murdered by the 
Indians on Lewis River, in the summer of 1813; some, including 
Mr. Franchere, the author of the narrative of the expeditions, re- 
turned over land to the United States, or to Canada ; and some 
remained on the Columbia, in the service of the North- West Com- 
pany. The long-expected ship Isaac Todd reached Fort George 
on the 17th of April, thirteen months after her departure from Eng- 

• * See the account of the capture of Astoria, extracted from Cox, in the Proofs 
and Illustrations, under the letter G, No. 3. 



1814.] TERMINATION OF THE ASTORIA ENTERPRISE. 305 

land, bringing a large stock of supplies ; by the aid of which the 
partners of the North- West Company were enabled to extend their 
operations, and to establish themselves more firmly in the country. 

Such was the termination of the Astoria enterprise ; for no 
attempt has been since made by any of the persons who were en- 
gaged in it to form establishments on the western side of America. 
It was wisely planned : the resources for conducting it were ample ; 
and its failure was occasioned by circumstances, the principal of 
which could not have been reasonably anticipated at the time of its 
commencement. That ships might be lost at sea, or that parties might 
be destroyed by savages, or perish from cold or hunger, — casualties 
such as these were expected, and provisions were made for the con- 
tingencies. But, in ISIO, when the Beaver sailed from New York, 
no one believed that, before the end of two years, the United States 
would be at war with the greatest maritime power in the world. 
By that war the whole plan was traversed. Communications by 
sea between the United States and the Pacific coasts became diffi- 
cult and uncertain, whilst those by land were of little advantage, 
and were always liable to interruption by the enemy ; and there 
was, in fact, no ^ object in collecting furs on the Columbia, when 
those articles could not be transported to China. 
1 The Pacific Company, nevertheless, might, and probably would, I 
have withstood all these difficulties, if the directing partners on the\ 
Columbia had been Americans, instead of being, as the greater part \ 
of them were, men unconnected with the United States by birth, or\ 
citizenship, or previous residence, or family ties. Mr. Astor de- 
clares that he would have preferred the loss of the establishments 
and property by a fair capture, to the sale of them in a manner 
which he considered disgraceful ; yet, although the conduct of 
Macdougal and Mackenzie, in that sale, and subsequently, was 
such as to authorize suspicions with regard to their motives, they 
could not have been expected to engage in hostilities against their 
compatriots and former friends. Being thus restrained from defend- 
ing the honor of the Pacific Company by force, they may have con- 
sidered themselves bound to take care of its interests, by the only 
means in their power, as they did in the sale. American citizens 
would have resisted the North-West Company, and would doubt- 
less have maintained their supremacy, in the country of the Co- 
lumbia, for some time, possibly until peace had been made between 
Great Britain and the United States. 
39 



306 



CHAPTER XV. 

1814 TO 1820. 

Restitution of Astoria to the United States by Great Britain, agreeably to the Treaty 
of Ghent — Alleged Reservation of Rights on the Part of Great Britain — First 
Negotiation between the Governments of Great Britain and the United States, 
respecting the Territories west of the Rocky Mountains, and Convention for the 
joint Occupancy of those Territories — Florida Treaty between Spain and the 
United States, by which the Latter acquires the Title of Spain to the North- 
West Coasts — Colonel Long's exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains — 
Disputes between the British North- West and Hudson's Bay Companies — Union 
of those Bodies — Act of Parliament extending the Jurisdiction of the Canada 
Courts to the Pacific Countries — Russian Establishments on the North Pacific — 
Expeditions in Search of Northern Passages between the Atlantic and the Pacific 
— Death of Tamahamaha, and Introduction of Christianity into the Sandwich 
Islands. 

The capture of Astoria by the British, and the transfer of the 
Pacific Company's estabhshments on the Columbia to the North- 
West Company, were not known to the plenipotentiaries of the 
United States at Ghent, on the 24th of December, 1814, when 
they signed the treaty of peace between their country and Great 
Britain. That treaty contains no allusion whatsoever to the north- 
west coasts of America, or to any portion of the continent west of 
the Lake of the Woods. The plenipotentiaries of the United 
States had been instructed by their government to consent to no 
claim on the part of Great Britain to territory in that quarter south 
of the 49th parallel of latitude, for reasons which have been already 
stated ; and, after some discussion, they proposed to the British an 
article similar in effect to the fifth article of the convention signed, 
but not definitively concluded, in 1807, according to which,^ a 
line drawn along that parallel should separate the territories of the 
powers so far as they extended west of the Lake of the Woods, 
provided, however, that nothing in the article should be construed 
as applying to any country west of the Rocky Mountains. The 
British plenipotentiaries were willing to accept this article, if it were 
also accompanied by a provision that their subjects should have 
access to the Mississippi River, through the territories of the United 

■" For the rrnsovs and the conrentiov here mentioned, see chap. xiii. 



1815.] THE UNITED STATES CLAIM ASTORIA. 307 

States, and the right of navigating it to the sea ; but the Americans 
refused positively to agree to such a stipulation, and the question 
of boundaries west of the Lake of the Woods was left unsettled by 
the treaty. 

It was nevertheless agreed, in the first article of the treaty of 
Ghent, that " all territory, places, and possessions, whatsoever, taken 
by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken 
after the signing of this treaty, excepting only the islands hereinafter 
mentioned, [in the Bay of Fundy,] shall be restored without delay ; " 
and, in virtue of this article, Mr. Monroe, the secretary of state of 
the United States, on the 18th of July, 1815, announced to Mr. 
Baker, the charge d'affaires of Great Britain at Washington, that 
the president intended immediately to reoccupy the post at the 
mouth of the Columbia. This determination seems to have been 
taken partly at the instance of Mr. Astor, who was anxious, if pos- 
sible, to recommence operations on his former plan in North- West 
America ; but no measures were adopted for the purpose until 
September, 1817, when Captain J. Biddle, commanding the sloop 
of war Ontario, and Mr. J. B. Prevost, were jointly commissioned 
to proceed in that ship to the mouth of the Columbia, and there 
" to assert the claim of the United States to the sovereignty of the 
adjacent country, in a friendly and peaceable manner, and without 
the employment of force." * 

A few days after the departure of Messrs. Biddle and Prevost for 
the Pacific, on this mission, Mr. Bagot, the British plenipotentiary 
at Washington, addressed to Mr. J. Q. Adams, the American 
secretary of state, some inquiries respecting the destination of the 
Ontario, and the objects of her voyage ; and, having been informed 
on those points, he remonstrated against the intended occupation 
of the post at the mouth of the Columbia, on the grounds " that 
the place had not been captured during the late war, but that the 
Americans had retired from it, under an agreement with the North- 
West Company, which had purchased their effects, and had ever 
since retained peaceable possession of the coast ; " and that " the 
territory itself ivas early taken possession of in his majesty's name, 
and had been since considered as forming part of his majesty's 
dominions ; " under which circumstances, no claim for the restitution 
of the post could be founded on the first article of the treaty of 
Ghent. At what precise time this possession was taken, or on 

* See President Monroe's message to Congress of April I5th, 1822, and the accom- 
panying documents. 



308 G. BRITAIN DENIES THE CLAIM OF THE U. STATES. [1818. 

what grounds the territory was considered as part of the British 
dominions, the minister did not attempt to show. 

Mr. Bagot at the same time communicated the circumstances to 
his government, and they became the subjects of discussion between 
Lord Castle reagh, the British secretary for foreign affairs, and Mr. 
Rush, the American plenipotentiary at London. Lord Castlereagh 
proposed that the question respecting the claim to the post on the 
Columbia should be referred to commissioners, as many other dis- 
puted points had been, agreeably to the treaty of Ghent ; to which 
Mr. Rush objected, for the simple reasons — that the spot was in the 
possession of the Americans before the war; that it fell, by bel- 
ligerent capture, into the hands of the British during the war ; and 
that, '•' under a treaty which stipulated the mutual restitution of all 
places reduced by the arms of either party, the right of the United 
States to immediate and full repossession could not be impugned." 
The British secretary, upon this, admitted the right of the Ameri- 
cans to be reinstated, and to be the party in possession, while 
treating on the title ; though he regretted that the government of 
the United States should have employed means to obtain restitution 
which might lead to difficulties. Mr. Rush had no apprehensions 
of that kind ; and it was finally agreed that the post should be 
restored to the Americans, and that the question of the title to the 
territory should be discussed in the negotiation as to limits and 
other matters, which was soon to be commenced. Lord Bathurst, 
the British secretary for the colonies, accordingly sent to the agents 
of the North-West Company at the mouth of the Columbia a 
despatch, directing them to afford due facilities for the reoccupation 
of the post at that point by the Americans; and an order to the 
same effect was also sent from the Admiralty to the commander of 
the British naval forces in the Pacific. 

The Ontario passed around Cape Horn into the Pacific, and 
arrived, in February, 1818, at Valparaiso, where it was agreed 
between the commissioners that Captain Biddle should proceed to 
the Columbia, and receive possession of Astoria for the United 
States, Mr. Prevost remaining in Chili for the purpose of transact- 
ing some business with the government of that country, which had 
also been intrusted to him. Captain Biddle accordingly sailed to 
the Columbia, and, on the 9th of August, he took temporary pos- 
session of the country on that river, in the name of the United 
States, after which he returned to the South Pacific. 

In the mean time, Commodore Bowles, the commander of the 



1818.] ASTORIA RESTORED TO THE UNITED STATES. 309 

British naval forces in the South Sea, received at Rio de Janeiro 
the order from the Admiralty for the surrender of the post on the 
Columbia to the Americans. This order he transmitted to Captain 
Sheriff, the senior officer of the ships in the Pacific, who, meeting 
Mr. Prevost at Valparaiso, informed him of the contents of the 
order, and offered him a passage to the Columbia, for the purpose 
of completing the business, as it certainly could not have been done 
by Captain Biddle. This offer was accepted by the American 
commissioner, who proceeded, in the British frigate Blossom, to the 
Columbia, and entered that river in the beginning of October ; and 
Mr. Keith, the superintending partner of tlie North- West Company 
at Fort George, or Astoria, having also received the order, from the 
colonial department at London, for the surrender of the place, the 
affair was soon despatched.* On the 6th of the month. Captain 
Hickey and Mr. Keith, as joint commissioners on the part of Great 
Britain, presented to Mr. Prevost a paper declaring that, in obe- 
dience to the commands of the prince regent, as signified in Lord 
Bathurst's despatch of the 27th of January previous, and in con- 
formity to the first article of the treaty of Ghent, they restored to 
the government of the United States, through its agent, Mr. Prevost, 
the settlement of Fort George, on the Columbia River ; and Mr. 
Prevost, in return, gave another paper, setting forth the fact of his 
acceptance of the settlement for his government, agreeably to the 

* President Monroe's message to Congress of April 17th, 1S22, accompanied by 
Mr. Prevost's letter, dated Monterey, November 11th, 1818. The two papers above 
mentioned are of so much importance, that they are here given at length. 

The act of delivery presented by the British commissioners is as follows : — 

" In obedience to the commands of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, signi- 
fied in a despatch from the right honorable the Earl Bathurst, addressed to the part- 
ners or agents of the North-West Company, bearing date the 27th of .laiiuary, IBIS, 
and in obedience to a subsequent order, dated the 26th of July, from W. H. Sheriff, 
Esq., captain of his Majesty's ship Andromache, we, the undersigned, do, in conform- 
ity to the first article of the treaty of Ghent, restore to the Government of the 
United States, through its agent, J. B. Prevost, Esq., the settlement of Fort George, 
on the Columbia River. Given under our hands, in triplicate, at Fort George, 
(Columbia River,) this 6th day of October, 1818. 

"F. HicKEv, Captain of his Majesty's ship Blossom. 

"J. Keith, of the JVorth-JVest Company." 

The act of acceptance, on the part of the American commissioner, is in these words : — 

" I do hereby acknowledge to have this day received, in behalf of the Government 
of the United States, the possession of the settlement designated above, in conformity 
to the first article of the treaty of Ghent. Given under my hand, in triplicate, at 
Fort George, (Columbia River,) this 6th of October, 1818. 

"J. B. Prevost, AgerUfor the United States." 



310 PRETENDED RESERVATION OF THE BRITISH. [1818. 

above-mentioned treaty. The British flag was then formally low^- 
ered, and that of the United States, having been hoisted in its stead 
over the fort, was saluted by the Blossom. 

The documents above cited — the only ones which passed 
between the commissioners on this occasion — are sufficient to 
show that no reservation or exception was made on the part of Great 
Britain, and that the restoration of Astoria to the United States 
was complete and unconditional. Nevertheless, in a negotiation 
between the governments of those nations, in 1826, relative to the 
territories of the Columbia, it was maintained by the plenipoten- 
tiaries of Great Britain,* that the restoration of Astoria could not 
have been legally required by the United States, in virtue of the 
treaty of Ghent, because the place was not a national possession, 
nor a military post, and was not taken during war ; but " in order 
that not even the shadow of a reflection might be cast upon the good 
faith of the British government, the latter determined to give the 
most liberal extension to the terms of the treaty of Ghent ; and 
in 1818, the purchase which the British Company had made in 
1813 was restored to the United States ; particular care being, 
however, taken, on this occasion, to prevent any misapprehension as 
to the extent of the concession made by Great Britain." In support 
of this last assertion, two documents are produced, as having been 
addressed, in 1818, hy the British ministers to their own agents, and 
which, though never before published, or communicated in any way to 
the United States, were considered by the plenipotentiaries, in 1826, 
as putting the " case of the restoration of Fort Astoria in too clear 
a light to require further observation." One of these documents is 
presented as an extract from Lord Castlereagh's despatch to Mr. 
Bagot, dated February 4th, 1818, in which his lordship says, " You 
will observe, that whilst this government is not disposed to contest 
with the American government the point of possession, as it stood 
in the Columbia River, at the moment of the rupture, they are not 
prepared to admit the validity of the title of the government of the 
United States to this settlement. In signifying, therefore, to Mr. 
Adams the full acquiescence of your government in the reoccupa- 
tion of the limited position which the United States held in that 
river at the breaking out of the war, you will, at the same time, assert, 
in suitable terrns, the claim of Great Britain to that territory, upon 
which the American settlement must be considered an encroach- 

• Statement presented by the British plenipotentiaries to Mr. Gallatin, among the 
Proofs and Illustrations, letter H. See hereafter, chap. xvi. 



1818.] PRETENDED RESERVATION OF BRITISH RIGHTS. 311 

ment : " the plenipotentiaries add that " this instruction was ex- 
ecuted verbally by the person to whom it was addressed." The 
other document purports to be a copy of the despatch from Lord 
Bathurst to the partners of the North-West Company, mentioned in 
the Act of DeUvery, presented by Messrs. Keith and Hickey, direct- 
ing them to restore the post on the Columbia, " in pursuance of the 
first article of the treaty of Ghent," in which the words " without, 
however, admitting the right of that government to the possession in 
question " appear in a parenthesis.* 

Without inquiring, at present, whether or not Astoria was a 
national possession of the United States, agreeably to the rules and 
definitions laid down by writers on national law, there can be no 
difficulty in showing that it was such according to the principles and 
practice of Great Britain ; and for tiiat purpose, it is necessary 
merely to refer to the circumstances attending the dispute between 
that power and Spain, in 1790, wlien the British government re- 
quired from Spain the surrender of a territory discovered by her 
navigators, and occupied by her forces, on the ground that it had, 
previous to such occupation, become the property of British sub- 
jects. Whether Astoria was a military post or not, could be of no 
consequence, as the treaty of Ghent provides for the restoration of 
" all territory, places, and possessions, whatsoever, taken by either 
party from the other, during the war," except those on the Atlantic 
.side of America specially named ; and that the establishments on 
the Columbia were so taken by the British during war, has been 
sufficiently proved. The right of the United States to make settle- 
ments on the Columbia, existed previous to the foundation of As- 
toria, in virtue of the discoveries and explorations of their private 
citizens and pubUc officers ; and that right could not be lessened, 
by any subsequent acts of their citizens, without the consent of 
their government. The agents of the Pacific Company, in expec- 

* The following is a copy of this despatch, as given in the British statement, which 
will be found among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, 
under the letter H : — 

"Downing Street, January 27th, 1818. 

" Intelligence having been received, that the United States sloop of war Ontario 

has been sent by the American government to establish a settlement on the Columbia 

River, which was held by that State on the breaking out of the last war, I am to 

acquaint you that it is the Prince Regent's pleasure, (witliout, however, admitting the 

right of that government to the possession in question,) that, in pursuance of the first 

article of the treaty of Ghent, due facility should be given to the reoccupation of the 

said settlement by the officers of the United States ; and I am to desire that you 

would contribute, as much as lies in yojir power, to the execution of his Royal High- 

ness's commands. I have, &c. «fec., 

" Bathcrst." 



312 BRITISH VIEWS OF NATIONAL FAITH. [1818. 

tation of the arrival of an overpowering British force, sold their 
" establishments, furs, and stock in hand," to the North-West Com- 
pany ; but they did not, nor could they, alienate the right of domain 
of the United States, which continued as before that transaction 
until the British forces arrived, and took possession of the country 
by right of conquest. The same circumstances might have oc- 
curred with regard to places near the head of the Mississippi, or in 
Maine ; and Great Britain would not have been bound more strong- 
ly by the treaty of Ghent to restore places so situated than to restore 
the establishments on the Columbia. 

The two documents, which the British plenipotentiaries consider 
as putting " the case of the restoration of Astoria in too clear a 
light to require further observation," are wholly inadmissible as evi- 
dence in " the case," being simply despatches from British ministers 
to their own agents, intended exclusively for the instruction of the 
latter, and with which the United States have no more concern than 
with the private opinions of those ministers. The attempt to rep- 
resent such communications as reservations of right on the part of 
Great Britain to the very territory which she was then in the act of 
restoring to the United States, expressedly in pursuance of a treaty, 
is alike at variance with the common sense and the common morals 
of the day ; and no arguments are required to show that, if such 
reservations were allowable, all engagements between nations would 
be nugatory, and all faith at an end. The statement respecting 
the assertion of the British claim to Astoria, verbally made by Mr. 
Bagot to Mr. Adams, is incomplete ; for, as Mr. Gallatin justly ob- 
served in answer, " it is not stated how the communication was re- 
ceived, nor whether the American government consented to accept 
the restitution with the reservation, as expressed in the despatch to 
the envoy ; " * and it is, moreover, by no means consonant with the 
usages of diplomatic intercourse at the present day, to treat verbally 
on questions so important as those of territorial sovereignty, or to 

* Mr. Gallatin's Counter-Statement, accompanying the president's message to Con- 
gress of December 12th, 1827. Upon the subject of this verbal communication, the 
following may be found in Mr. Adams's despatch to Mr. Rush, of July 22d, 1823, 
accompanying the same message : — 

" Previous to the restoration of the settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River, 
in 1818, and again, upon the first introduction in Congress of the plan for constituting 
a territorial government there, some disposition was manifested, by Sir Charles Bagot 
and Mr. [Stratford] Canning, to dispute the right of the United States to that estab- 
lishment, and some vague intimation was given of the British claims on the north- 
west coast. The restoration of the place, and the convention of 1818, were consid- 
ered as a final disposal of Mr. Bagot's objections, and Mr. Canning declined 
committing to naper those which he had intimated in conversation." 



1818.] BRITISH VIEWS OF NATIONAL FAITH. 313 

consider as sufficient, protests and exceptions made in that manner, 
and brought forward long after, without acknowledgment of any 
kind on the part of those to whom they are said to have been ad- 
dressed. The only communication received by the American gov- 
ernment, on the occasion of the restitution of Astoria, is explicit: 
" We, the undersigned, do, in conformity to the first article of the 
treaty of Ghent, restore to the government of the United States the 
settlement of Fort George, on the Columbia River ; " and this direct 
and unqualified recognition of the right of the United States cannot 
be affected by subsequent communications to or from any persons. 

It may also be remarked, that although the British government, 
in 1826, pronounced as sufficient a reservation contained in a secret 
despatch from one of its own ministers to one of its own agents, and 
withheld from the other party interested in the matter, yet, in 1834, 
the same government pronounced the reservation contained in the 
Declaration publicly presented by the Spanish ambassador at Lon- 
don, in 1771, on the conclusion of the dispute respecting the Falk- 
land Islands, " not to possess any substantial weight,'' * inasmuch as 
it had not been noticed in the Acceptance presented by the British 
government in return. The circumstances connected with the last- 
mentioned transaction have been already so fully exposed, that it 
is unnecessary to repeat them here. 

Immediately after the conclusion of the surrender of Astoria, 
Mr. Keith presented to Mr. Prevost a note containing inquiries — 
whether or not the government of the United States would insist 
upon the abandonment of the post by the North- West Company,! 
before the final decision of the question as to the right of sove- 
reignty over the country ; and whether, in the event of such a 

* Letter from Viscount Palmerston to Senor Moreno, envoy of Buenos Ayres 
at London, dated January 8th, 1834. See the note in p. Ill, containing a sketch of 
the circumstances of the dispute respecting the Falkland Islands. 

t The buildings, and, indeed, the whole establishment at Astoria, had been consid- 
erably increased, since it came into the hands of the North- West Company. Accord 
ing to the plan and description of the place sent by INIr. Prevost to Washington, the 
factory consisted, in 1818, of a stockade made of pine logs, twelve feet in length 
above the ground, enclosing a parallelogram of one hundred and fifty by two hundred 
and fifty feet, extending in its greatest length from north-west to south-east, and 
defended by bastions or towers at two opposite angles. Within this enclosure were 
all the buildings of the establishment, such as dwelling-houses, magazines, store- 
houses, mechanics' shops, &c. The artillery were two heavy eighteen-pounders, 
six six-pounders, four four-pound carronades, two six-pound cohorns, and seven 
swivels, all mounted. The number of persons attached to the place, besides a few 
women and children, was sixty-five, of whom twenty-three were whites, twenty-six 
Sandwich Islanders, (or Kanakis, as they are generally called in the Pacific,) and 
the remainder persons of mixed blood, from Canada. 

40 



314 NEGOTIATION AT LONDON. [1818. 

decision being in favor of the United States, their government 
vv'ould be disposed to indemnify the North- West Company for any 
improvements which they might, in the mean time, have made there. 
On these points, Mr. Prevost, having no instructions, could only 
reply, as he did, to the effect — that his government would, doubtless, 
if it should determine to keep up the settlement, satisfy any claims of 
the North- West Company which might be conformable with justice 
and the usages of civilized nations. After a few days more spent 
on the Columbia, the Blossom quitted the river with Mr. Prevost, 
whom she carried to Peru, the post remaining in the hands of the 
British traders, who have ever since continued to occupy it. 

Whilst these measures for the restitution of Astoria were in 
progress, a negotiation was carried on, at London, between the 
plenipotentiaries of the American and British governments, for the 
definitive arrangement of many questions which were left unsettled 
by the treaty of Ghent, including those relating to the boundaries 
of the territories of the two nations west of the Lake of the Woods.* 
Messrs. Rush and Gallatin, the plenipotentiaries of the United 
States, proposed — that the dividing line between those territories 
should be drawn from the north-western extremity of that lake, 
north or south, as the case might require, to the 49th parallel 
of latitude, and thence along that parallel west to the Pacific 
Ocean. The British commissioners, Messrs. Goulburn and Robin- 
son, after a discussion in which they endeavored to secure to British 
subjects the right of access to the Mississippi, and of navigating 
that river, agreed to admit the line proposed as far west as the 
Rocky Mountains ; and an article to that effect was accordingly 
inserted in the projet of a convention. 

The claims of the respective nations to territories west of the 
Rocky Mountains were then considered. Messrs. Rush and Galla- 
tin " did not assert that the United States had a perfect right to that 
country, but insisted that their claim was at least good against Great 
Britain ; " and they cited, in support of that claim, the facts of the 
discovery of the Columbia River, of the first exploration from its 
sources to its mouth, and of the formation of the first establishments 
in the country through which it flows, by American citizens. 
Messrs. Goulburn and Robinson, on the other hand, affirmed " that 
former voyages, and principally that of Captain Cook, gave to 
Great Britain the rights derived from discovery ; and they alluded to 

* President Monroe's message to Congress, with the accompanying documents, 
Bent December 29th, 1818. 



1818.] CONVENTION OF UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN. 315 

purchases from the natives south of the Columbia, which they 
alleged to have been made prior to the American revolution. 
They did not make any formal proposition for a boundary, but 
intimated that the river itself was the most convenient which could 
be adopted ; and that they would not agree to any which did not 
give them the harbor at the mouth of that river, in common with 
the United States." 

It is needless here to repeat the proofs that Cook saw no part of 
the west coast of America south of Mount San Jacinto, near the 
57th degree of latitude, which had not been already explored by 
the Spaniards ; with regard to the purchases from the natives 
south of the Columbia, alleged to have been made by British 
subjects prior to the revolution, history is entirely silent. The de- 
termination expressed on the part of the British government not to 
assent to any arrangement which did not give to Great Britain the 
mouth of the Columbia, was at least unequivocal, and was sufficient 
to show that all arguments on the American side would be unavailing. 
It was, accordingly, at length agreed that all territories and their 
waters, claimed by either power, west of the Rocky Mountains, 
should be free and open to the vessels, citizens, and subjects, of 
both for the space of ten years ; provided, however, that no claim 
of either, or of any other nation, to any part of those territories, 
should be prejudiced by the arrangement. 

This convention having been completed, it was signed by the 
plenipotentiaries on the 20th of October, 1818, and was soon after 
ratified by the governments of both nations.* The compromise 
contained in its third article, with regard to the territories west of 
the Rocky Mountains, was, perhaps, the most wise, as well as the 
most equitable, measure which could have been adopted at that 
time ; considering that neither party pretended to possess a perfect 
title to the sovereignty of any of those territories, and that there 
was no prospect of the speedy conclusion of any arrangement with 
regard to them, between either party and the other claimants, 
Spain and Russia. The agreement could not certainly, at the 
time, have been considered unfavorable to the United States ; for, 
although the North- West Company held the whole trade of the 
Columbia country, yet the important post at the mouth of that 
river was restored to the Americans without reservation, and there 
was every reason for supposing that it would be immediately re- 

* See tlie third article of the convention of October, 1818, among the Proofs and 
Illustrations, in the latter part of this History, under the letter K, No. 2. 



316 FLORIDA TREATY BETWEEN U. STATES AND SPAIN. [1818. 

occupied by its founders : and it seemed, moreover, evident that 
the citizens of the United States would enjoy many and great 
advantages over all other people in the country in question, in con- 
sequence of their superior facilities of access to it, especially since 
the introduction of steam vessels on the Mississippi and its branches. 

In the same year, a negotiation was carried on at Washington, 
between the governments of the United States and Spain, in which 
the question of boundaries on the north-west side of America was 
likewise discussed. The Spanish minister, Don Luis de Onis, 
began by declaring that " the right and dominion of the crown of 
Spain to the north-west coast of America as high as the Californias, 
is certain and indisputable ; the Spaniards having explored it as far 
as the 47th degree, in the expedition under Juan de Fuca, in 1592, 
and in that under Admiral Fonte, to the 55th degree, in 1640. The 
dominion of Spain in these vast regions being thus established, and 
her rights of discovery, conquest, and possession, being never dis- 
puted, she could scarcely possess a property founded on more re- 
spectable principles, whether of the law of nations, of public law, or 
of any others which serve as a basis to such acquisitions as compose 
all the independent kingdoms and states of the earth." Upon these 
positive assertions, the American plenipotentiary, Mr. J. Q. Adams, 
secretary of state, did not consider himself required to offer any 
comment ; and the origin, extent, and value, of the claims of Spain 
to the north-western portion of America remained unquestioned 
during the discussion. The negotiation was broken off in the early 
part of the year, soon after its commencement ; it was, however, 
renewed, and was terminated on the 22d of February, 1819, by a 
treaty commonly called the Florida treaty, in which the southern 
boundaries of the United States were definitively fixed. Spain 
ceded Florida to the American republic, which relinquished all 
claims to territories west of the River Sabine, and south of the 
upper parts of the Red and the Arkansas Rivers ; and it was 
agreed that a line drawn on the meridian from the source of the 
Arkansas northward to the 42d parallel of latitude, and thence 
along that parallel westward to the Pacific, should form the 
northern boundary of the Spanish possessions, and the southern 
boundary of those of the United States, in that quarter, — " His 
Catholic majesty ceding to the United States all his rights, claims, 
and pretensions, to any territories north of the said line." 

The provisions of this treaty, particularly those relating to limits, 
appear to have been as nearly just as any which could have been 



1319.] FLORIDA TREATY BETWEEN THE U. S. \ND SPAIN. 317 

framed under existing circumstances; and as an almost necessary 
consequence, they were not received with general satisfaction by 
either nation. The Americans insisted that the Rio del Norte should 
have been made the boundary of their republic in the south-west, 
so as to secure to it the possession of the vast and fertile region of 
Texas, which they claimed as originally forming part of Louisiana ; 
whilst the Spaniards protested that their interests in the new world 
had been sacrificed by the surrender of Florida to the power most 
dangerous to them in that quarter. The Spanish government, 
which was then in the hands of the Cortes, withheld its ratification 
of the treaty for nearly two years ; and within a year after that 
ratification had been given, the authority of Spain was extin- 
guished in every portion of America contiguous to the new line of 
boundary.* 

With regard to the extent of the territory west of the Rocky 
Mountains, and the validity of the title to it thus acquired by the 
United States, it will be convenient here to introduce some ob- 
servations. 

* See tlio third article of the treaty of 1819, defining the boundary, as settled, in 
the Proofs ajid Illustrations, under the Letter K, No. 6. The correspondence which 
passed during the negotiation may be found accompanying President Monroe's mes- 
sage to Congress of February 2'2d, 1819. Great skill and knowledge of the subject are 
displayed by each of the plenipotentiaries in this correspondence ; the Chevalier de 
Onis occasionally employing that finesse which was considered as the principal 
weapon of the diplomatist of the last centuries, while Mr. Adams, in addition to his 
superior acquaintance with history and national law, impresses upon tlie reader his 
profound conviction of the justice of his cause. 

The Spanish plenipotentiary, on returning to his country, found it necessary to 
vindicate his conduct in this negotiation, by a Memoir, published at Madrid in 1820, 
in which he shows that he was by no means convinced of the right of Spain to the 
territory west of the Sabine River; and he claims especial commendation from his 
government for this part of the treaty of 1319, " which," he says, "is improperly 
styled a treaty of cession, whereas it is in reality one of exchange, or permutation, of 
a small province for another of double the extent, more rich and fertile. 1 will 
agree," he adds, "that the third article might, with greater clearness, have been ex- 
pressed thus : ' In exchange, the United States cede to his Catholic majestrj the province 
of Texas,' &c. ; but as I had been for three years maintaining, in the lengthened cor- 
respondence herein inserted, that this province belonged to the king, it would have 
been a contradiction to express, in the treaty, that the United States cede it to his 
majesty." 

The Chevalier de Onis, however, insinuates, in his Memoir, that one object of his 
long correspondence on this subject was to gain time. In fact, during the summer 
of 1818, while the correspondence was partially suspended, (with the same object of 
gaining time, no doubt,) the Spanish government formally applied to that of Great 
Britain for aid, or mediation, in the affair; to which Lord Castlereagh immediately 
returned a decided negative, at the same time advising the Spanish government to 
cede Florida to the United States, and to make any other arrangement which might 
be deemed proper, without delay. 



318 DURATION OF THE NOOTKA CONVENTION. [1819. 

That the Nootka convention expired on the declaration of war by 
Spain against Great Britain in 1796, and could not have been after 
that period in force, except in virtue of a distinct and formal renewal 
by the same parties — is consonant with the universal practice of civ- 
ilized nations, and especially of Great Britain, as manifested during 
the well-known negotiations between her government and that of 
the United States, in 1915, respecting the Newfoundland fishery. 
Mr. Adams, the American plenipotentiary, on that occasion, insisted 
that his countrymen should continue, not only to fish on the Banks 
of Newfoundland, but also to land on the British American coasts 
for the same purpose, as they had done before the war of 1812, by 
the treaty of 1783, although that treaty had not been renewed by 
the treaty of Ghent, at the termination of the war — upon the ground 
that the treaty of 1783, by which Great Britain acknowledged the 
independence of the United States, was " of a peculiar nature, and 
bore, in that nature, a character of permanency, not subject, like many 
of the ordinary contracts between independent nations, to abrogation 
by a subsequent war between the same parties." To this the British 
minister. Lord Bathurst, answered, that, " if the United States derived 
from the treaty of 1783 privileges from which other independent 
nations, not admitted by treaty, were excluded, the duration of those 
privileges must depend on the duration of the instrument by which 
they were granted ; and if the war abrogated the treaty, it deter- 
mined the privileges. It has been urged, indeed," continues his 
lordship, " on the part of the United States, that the treaty of 1783 
was of a peculiar nature, and that, because it contained a recognition 
of American independence, it could not be abrogated by a subse- 
quent war between the parties. To a position of this novel nature 
Great Britain cannot accede. She Jcnoivs of no exception to the rule, 
that all treaties are put an end to by a subsequent war between the 
same parties : she cannot, therefore, consent to give to her diplo- 
matic relations with one state a different degree of permanency 
from that on which her connection with all other states depends. 
Nor can she consider any one state at liberty to assign to a 
treaty, made with her, such a peculiarity of character, as shall 
make it, as to duration, an exception to all other treaties, in order 
to found on a peculiarity thus assumed an irrevocable title to all 
indulgences which have all the features of temporary concessions." 
The British minister, indeed, admitted that recognitions of right 
in a treaty might be consifJered as perpetual obligations : and, refer- 
ring to the terms of the treaty of 1783, he showed that the right of 



1819.] THE NOOTKA CONVENTION EXPIRED IN 1796. 319 

the Americans to fish on the banks of Newfoundland (tliat is to say, 
in the open sea) was there distinctly acknowledged, while the liberty 
to use the British coasts for the same purpose was conceded to them ; 
and that, although the right subsisted in virtue of the inclependence 
of the United States, the liberty expired on the declaration of war 
in 1812, and could not again be enjoyed, without the express con- 
sent of Great Britain. It may be added that the position thus 
assumed by the British government was maintained throughout the 
negotiation ; at the end of which, the liberty to take and cure fish 
on certain parts of the British American coasts, so long as they 
should remain unsettled, was secured to the citizens of the United 
States, in common with British subjects, forever, by the first article 
of the convention of October 20th, 1818.* 

Applying to the Nootka convention the rule thus enforced by 
Great Britain in 1815, with all its exceptions in their widest sense, 
there can be no question that this compact was entirely abrogated 
by the war between that power and Spain, begun in October, 1796. 
On analyzing the convention, it will be seen that the first, second, 
and eighth articles relate exclusively to certain acts, which were to 
be forthwith performed by one or both of the parties, and which 
having been performed, as they all were, before 1796, those articles 
became dead letters. By the third, article, " it is agreed, in order to 
strengthen the bonds of friendship, and to preserve, in future, a perfect 
harmony and good understanding betiveeri the two contracting parties," 
that their respective subjects shall not be disturbed or molested in 
navigating or fishing in the Pacific or Southern Oceans, or in land- 
ing on the coasts of those seas in places not already occupied, "for 
the purpose of carrying on their commerce with the natives of the 
country, or of making settlements there; " under certain restrictions, 
nevertheless, to the specification of which the fourth, fifth, and 
sixth articles are entirely devoted : the remaining seventh article 
merely indicating the course to be pursued in cases of infraction of 
the others. The Nootka convention thus contains nothing which 
can be construed as a perpetual obligation, no assertion or recogni- 
tion of right, which can be deemed irrevocable ; but is, as a whole, 
and in each of its separate stipulations, a concession, or series of 
concessions. To navigate and fish in the open sea, and to trade 
and settle on coasts unoccupied by any civilized nation, are indeed 
rights claimed by all civilized nations: Spain, however, did not 

* Correspondence annexed to President Monroe's message to Congress of Decem- 
ber 29th, 1818. 



320 THE NOOTKA CONVENTION EXPIRED IN 1796. [1819. 

acknowledge these rights as existing in any other power with 
regard to the Pacific and Southern Oceans and their American 
coasts ; and, by the Nootka convention, she merely engaged to 
desist from the exercise of privileges claimed by her in those seas 
and coasts, so far as British subjects might be affected by them, 
on condition that Great Britain should desist from the exercise of 
privileges claimed by her, in the same quarters of the world. After 
the abrogation of the convention by war, each nation might again 
assert and exercise the privileges claimed by it before the conclusion 
of the compact ; and neither could be regarded as bound by any 
of the restrictions defined in that instrument, until they had been 
formally renewed by express consent of both the original parties. 

The war begun by Spain against Great Britain, in 1796, con- 
tinued, with the intermission of the two years of uncertainty suc- 
ceeding the peace of Amiens, until 1809, when those nations were 
again allied, in opposition to France. Since that period, they have 
remained constantly at peace with each other. The only engage- 
ment made between them for the renewal of treaties subsisting 
before 1796, is contained in the first of the three additional articles 
to the treaty of Madrid, signed on the 24th of August, 1814, wherein 
"/if is agreed that, pending the negotiation of a new treaty of com- 
merce, Great Britain shall he admitted to trade ivith Spain, upon the 
same conditions as those which existed previously to 1796 ; all the 
treaties of commerce, which at that period subsisted hetiveen the tivo 
nations, being hereby ratified and confirmed.''^ Thus the Nootka 
convention could not have been in force at any time between Octo- 
ber, 1796, and August, 1814; nor since that period, unless it were 
renewed by the additional article above quoted. That the first part 
of this article related only to trade between the European dominions 
of Great Britain and Spain, is certain, because no trade had ever 
been allowed, by treaty or otherwise, between either kingdom, or its 
colonies, and the colonies of the other, except in the single case of 
the ^siewifo, concluded in 1713, and abrogated in 1740, agreeably 
to which the British South Sea Company supplied the Spanish 
colonies with negro slaves during that period ; and because, more- 
over, by an article in the treaty of Madrid, to which the above- 
quoted article is additional, " 7n the event of the commerce of the 
Spanish American colonies being opened to foreign nations, his 
Catholic majesty promises thai Great Britain shall be admitted to 
trade with those possessio7is, as the most favored nation." The second 
part of the additional article is evidently intended merely in confir- 



1819.] THE NOOTKA CONVENTION EXPIRED IN 1796. 321 

mation and completion of the first, which would otherwise have want- 
ed the requisite degree of precision ; and it certainly could not have 
embraced the convention of 1790, except so far as related to the 
commerce of each of the parties on the unoccupied coasts of Amer- 
ica, and the settlements made by each for that special purpose. 

Had the convention of 1790 been expressly renewed and con- 
firmed in 1814, it would still have been inoperative, except with 
regard to subjects and establishments of the contracting parties. 
The governments of Great Britain and Spain might have again 
agreed that their subjects should reciprocally enjoy liberty of access 
and trade, in all establishments which either might form on the 
north-west coasts of America ; but neither power could have claimed 
such rights in places on those coasts then occupied by a third nation. 

It has been already shown that, after the abandonment of Nootka 
Sound by the Spaniards, in March, 1795, no settlement was made, 
or attempted, by them in any of the countries on the western side 
of America north of the Bay of San Francisco ; and that, during 
the period between that year and 1814, many establishments were 
formed in those countries by Russians, British, and citizens of the 
United States. The Russians extended their posts from Aliaska 
eastward to Sitka, and even fixed themselves within a few miles of 
the Bay of San Francisco. The British founded their first establish- 
ment west of the Rocky Mountains, in 1806, on the upper waters 
of Fraser's River, near the 54th degree of latitude. The Columbia 
was surveyed by order of the government of the United States, with 
a view to its occupation, in 1805 ; and their citizens made estab- 
lishments on that river successively in 1808, 1810, and 1811, of 
which the principal were, in 1813, taken by the British, and in 
1818, restored to the Americans, agreeably to the treaty of Ghent. 
Under such circumstances, the title of Spain to the countries north 
of the Bay of San Francisco, however strong it may have been in 
1790 or 1796, in virtue of discoveries and settlements, must be 
allowed to have become considerably weaker in 1819, from disuse, 
and from submission to the acts of occupation by other powers. 
Thus, whilst it may be doubted that either of those powers could 
in justice claim the sovereignty of the country occupied by its sub- 
jects without the consent of Spain, the latter could not have claimed 
the exclusive possession of such country, or have entered into com- 
pacts with a third power, respecting trade, navigation, or settlement, 
in it, agreeably to any recognized principle of national law. Still 
less could Great Britain have claimed the right to exclude other 
41 



322 long's expedition to the rocky mountains. [1819. 

nations from the sovereignty of the regions traversed by the Co- 
lumbia, in which her subjects had made no discoveries, and which 
had been first occupied by the United States, unless upon the 
ground of conquest during war ; and this ground became untenable 
after the treaty of Ghent, as distinctly acknowledged by the British 
government in the fact of the restoration of Astoria. 

Thus, whilst the title to the countries north of the 42d parallel 
of latitude, derived by the United States from Spain, through the 
Florida treaty, was undoubtedly imperfect, — though not from any 
possible effect of the Nootka convention, as insisted by the British 
government in 1826, — yet that title, in addition to those previously 
possessed by the Americans, in virtue of their discoveries and set- 
tlements in the Columbia countries, appears to constitute a right in 
their favor, stronger than could be alleged by any other nation, if 
not amounting to an absolute right of sovereignty. 

Immediately after the signature of the Florida treaty, an expedi- 
tion for tlie purpose of examining the country drained by the Mis- 
souri and its branches was organized by Mr. Calhoun, then secre- 
tary of war of the United States, who had been, for some time pre- 
vious, assiduously endeavoring to regulate the intercourse with the 
Indians,* and to extend the military posts of the United States 
through those regions. The party, comprising a large number of 
officers and men of science, passed the summer of 1819 in exam- 
ining the Lower Missouri, and the following winter in cantonment 
at Council Bluffs, on the west side of that river, eiglit hundred and 
fifty miles above its junction with the Mississippi. In June of the 
following year they proceeded up the valley of the Platte, to the 
confluence of its north and south branches or forks, and then 
continued along the south fork, to its sources in the Rocky Moun- 
tains, near the 40th degree of latitude. Here Dr. James, the bota- 
nist of the expedition, ascended a mountain, named after him James's 
Peak, the height of which was estimated, though on data by no 



* See Mr. Calhoun's report on this subject to the House of Representatives, dated 
December 5th, 1818, in which he reviews the system of intercourse with the Indians 
then pursued, and recommends, as tlie only means of protecting them against the cu- 
pidity of the traders, and of securing the United States against the deleterious influ- 
ence exercised over those people by the British trading companies, that the whole 
trade in the regions beyond the organized states and territories of the Union should 
be vested, for twent}' years, in a company, subject to such regulations as might be 
prescribed by law. This document merits attention, from the accuracy of the details 
and the force of the reasoning ; and we may now regret that the plan proposed by 
Mr. Calhoun was not carried into effect. 



1820.] STERILITY OF THE CENTRAL REGIONS OF AMERICA. 323 

means sufficient, at not less than eight thousand five hundred feet 
above the ocean level ; and then, striking the head-waters of the 
Arkansas, which also flows from the same mountain, they de- 
scended the valley of that river to its junction with the Mississippi. 
Much information was obtained, through tiiis expedition, respect- 
ing the geography, natural history, and aboriginal inhabitants, of 
the countries traversed, all of which was communicated to the 
world in an exact and perspicuous narrative, published by Dr. 
James in 1823. One most important fact, in a political point of 
view, was completely established by the observations of the party ; 
namely, that the whole division of North America, drained by the 
Missouri and the Arkansas, and their tributaries, between the 
meridian of the mouth of the Platte and the Rocky Mountains, is 
arlmost entirely unfit for cultivation, and therefore uninhabitable by 
a people depending upon agriculture for their subsistence. The 
portion of this territory within five hundred miles of the Rocky 
Mountains, on the east, extending from the 39th to the 49th paral- 
lels of latitude, was indeed found to be a desert of sand and 
stones ; and subsequent observations have shown the adjoining 
regions, to a great distance west of those mountains, to be still 
more arid and sterile. These circumstances, as they became known 
through the United States, rendered the people and their repre- 
sentatives in the federal legislature more and more indiflferent with 
regard to the territories on the north-western side of the continent. 
It became always difficult, and generally impossible, to engage the 
attention of Congress to any matters connected with those countries : 
emigrants from the populous states of the Union would not banish 
themselves to the distant shores of the Pacific, whilst they could 
obtain the best lands on the Mississippi and its branches at mod- 
erate prices ; and capitalists would not vest their funds in establish- 
ments for the administration and continued possession of which 
they could have no guarantee. From 1813 until 1823, few, if 
any, American citizens were employed in the countries west of the 
Rocky Mountains ; and ten years more elapsed before any settle- 
ment was formed, or even attempted, by them in that part of the 
world. 

Changes were, about the same time, made in the system of the 
British trade in the northern parts of America, which led to the 
most important political and commercial results. 

Frequent allusions have been already made to the enmity subsist- 
ing between the Hudson's Bay and the North-West Companies. 



324 DISPUTES OF BRITISH FUR COMPANIES. [1816 

This feeling was displayed only in words, or in the commission of 
petty acts of injury or annoyance by each against the other, until 
1814, when a regular war broke out between the parties, which 
was, for some time after, openly carried on. The scene of the 
hostilities was the territory traversed by the Red River of Hudson's 
Bay and its branches, in which Lord Selkirk, a Scotch nobleman^ 
had, in 1811, obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company a grant 
of not less than a hundred thousand square miles, for the establish- 
ment of agricultural colonies. The validity of this grant was 
denied by the North-West Company, to which the proposed occu- 
pation of the territory in question would have been absolutely 
ruinous, as the routes from Canada to the north-western trading 
posts ran through it, and from it were obtained nearly all the pro- 
visions consumed at those posts. The British government, however, 
appeared to favor and protect Lord Selkirk's project, and a large 
number of Scotch Highlanders were, without opposition, established 
on Red River, the country about which received, in 1812, the 
name of Ossinobia. For two years after the formation of the set- 
tlement, peace was maintained; at length, in January, 1814, Miles 
Macdonnel, the governor of the new province, issued a proclama- 
tion, in which he set forth the limits of the region claimed by his 
patron, and prohibited all persons, under pain of seizure and 
prosecution, from carrying out of it " any provisions, either of flesh, 
dried meat, grain, or vegetables," during that year. The attempts 
to enforce this prohibition were resisted by the North-West traders, 
who appeared so resolute in their determination not to yield, that 
the colonists became alarmed, and quitted the country, some of 
them returning to Canada, and others emigrating to the United 
States. In the following year, Lord Selkirk again sent settlers of 
various nations to the Red River, between whom and the North- 
West people hostilities were immediately begun. Posts were taken 
and destroyed on both sides; and, on the 19th of June, 1816, a 
battle was fought, in which the Ossinobians were routed, and 
seventeen of their number, including their governor, Mr. Semple, 
were killed. The country was then again abandoned by the 
settlers.* 

These affairs were brought before the British Parliament in June, 

* T/>rd SfJkirk's Sketch of the British Fur Trade in North America, published in 
181G, and the review of it in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1816 — 
JVarrative of the Occurrences in the Indian Countries of America, published by the 
North-West Company in 1817, containing all the documents on the subject. 



1821.] JURISDICTION OF THE CANADA COURTS EXTENDED. 325 

1819 ; and a debate ensued, in the course of which the proceedings 
of the two rival associations were minutely investigated. The 
ministry then interposed its mediation, and a compromise was thus 
at length effected, by which the North-West Company became 
united with, or rather merged in, the Hudson's Bay Company. At 
the same time, and in connection with this arrangement, an " act 
for regulating the fur trade and establishivg a criminal and civil 
jurisdiction in certain parts of North America " was passed in 
Parliament, containing every provision required to give stability to 
the Hudson's Bay Company, and efficiency to its operations. 

By this act, passed on the 2d of July, 1821, the king was 
authorized to make grants or give licenses to any body corporate, 
company, or person, for the exclusive privilege of trading with the 
Indians, in all such parts of North America as may be specified 
in the grants, not being parts of the territories previously granted 
to the Hudson's Bay Company, or of any of his majesty's provinces 
in Nortli America, or any territories belonging to the United States 
of America : provided, however, that no such grant or license shall 
be given for a longer period than twenty-one years ; that no grant 
or license for exclusive trade, in the part of America west of the 
Rocky Mountains, which, by the convention of 1318 with the United 
States, remained free and open to the subjects or citizens of both 
nations, shall be used to the prejudice or exclusion of citizens of 
the United States engaged in such trade ; and that no British sub- 
ject shall trade in those territories west of the Rocky Mountains 
without such license or grant. By the same act, also, the courts of 
judicature of Upper Canada are empowered to take cognizance of 
all causes, civil or criminal, arising in any of the above-mentioned 
territories, including those previously granted to the Hudson's Bay 
Company, and *' other parts of America, not within the limits of 
either of the provinces of Upper or Lower Canada, or of any civil 
government of the United States ; " and justices of the peace are to 
be commissioned in those territories, to execute and enforce the 
laws and the decisions of the courts, to take evidence, and commit 
offenders and send them for trial to Canada, and even, under cer- 
tain circumstances, to hold courts themselves, for the trial of crimi- 
nal offences and misdemeanors not punishable by death, and of 
civil causes, in which the amount at issue should not exceed two 
hundred pounds.* 

* See the act and the grant here mentioned in the Proofs and Illustrations, at the 
end of this volume, under the letter I, No. 2. 



326 SEARCH FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE RESUMED. [1821. 

Upon the passage of this act, the union of the two companies 
was effected, and a grant was made, by the king, to " the governor 
and company of adventurers trading to Hudson's Bay, and to 
William MacgilUvray, Simon MacgilUvray, and Edward EHice," the 
persons so named, representing the former proprietors of the North- 
West Company,* of the exclusive trade, for twenty-one years, in all 
the countries in which such privileges could be granted agreeably 
to the act. Persons in the service of the company were, at the 
same time, commissioned as justices of the peace for those coun- 
tries ; and the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada was 
rendered effective as far as the shores of the Pacific, no exception 
being made, in that respect, by the act, with regard to any of the 
territories embraced in the grant, '■'■not within the limits of any civil 
government of the United States.^' 

About this period, also, the search for a north-west passage, or 
navigable communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
north of America, which had been so long suspended, was resumed 
by British officers, under the auspices of their government ; and 
expeditions for that object were made through Baffin's Bay, as well 
as by land, through the northernmost parts of the American conti- 
nent. The geographical results of these expeditions were highly 
interesting, while, at the same time, the skill, courage, and perse- 
verance, of the British were honorably illustrated by the labors of 
Ross, Parry, Franklin, and their companions. The west coasts of 
Baffin's Bay were carefully Si,urveyed, and many passages leading 
from it towards the west and south-west, were traced to considera- 
ble distances. The progress of the ships through these passages 
was, however, in each case, arrested by ice ; and, although many 
extensive portions of the northern coast of the continent were 
explored, and the Arctic Sea, in their vicinity, was lound free from 
ice during the short summer, the question respecting the existence 
of a northern channel of communication between the oceans was 
left unsolved. These voyages, independently of the value of their 
scientific results, also proved most advantageous to the commerce 
of the British throughout the whole of their territories in America, 
as new routes were opened, and new regions, abounding in furs, 
were rendered accessible. 

The Russians were, in the mean time, constantly increasing their 

* In 1824, the North-West Company surrendered its rights and interests to the 
Hudson's Bay Company, in the name of which alone all the operations were thence- 
forward conducted. 



1 
1 



1815.] RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. 327 

trade in the Pacific, and, in addition to their estabhshments on the 
northernmost coasts of that ocean, they had taken possession of the 
country adjoining Port San Francisco, which they seemed deter- 
mined, as well as able, to retain. With tiiis object, Baranof, the 
chief agent of the Russian American Company, in 1812, obtained 
from the Spanish governor of California permission to erect some 
houses, and to leave a few men on the shore of Bodega Bay, a 
little north of Port San Francisco, where they were employed in 
hunting the wild cattle, and drying meat for the supply of Sitka 
and the other settlements. In the course of two or three years 
after this permission was granted, the number of persons thus 
employed became so great, and their dwelling assumed so much 
the appearance of a fort, that the governor thought proper to 
remonstrate on the subject ; and, his representations being disre- 
garded, he formally commanded the Russians to quit the territories 
of his Catholic majesty. The command was treated with as little 
respect as the remonstrance ; and, upon its repetition, the Russian 
agent, Kuskof, coolly denied the right of the Spaniards over the 
territory, which he asserted to be free and open for occupation by 
the people of any civilized power. The governor of California 
was unable to enforce his commands ; and, as no assistance could 
be afforded to him from Mexico, in which the rebellion was then 
at its height, the intruders were left in possession of the ground, 
where they remained until 1840, in defiance alike of Spaniards 
and of Mexicans. 

On the restoration of peace in Europe, in 1814, the Russian 
American Company resolved to make another effort to establish a 
direct commercial intercourse, by sea, between its possessions on 
the North Pacific and the European ports of the empire. With this 
object, the American ship Hannibal was purchased, and, her name 
having been changed to Suwarrow, she was despatched from Cron- 
stadt, under Lieutenant Lazaref, laden with merchandise, for Sitka, 
whence she returned in the summer of 1815, with a cargo of furs 
valued at a million of dollars. The adventure proving successful, 
others of the same kind were made, until the communications be- 
came regular, as they now are. 

After the departure of this vessel from Sitka, Baranof sent about 
a hundred Russians and Aleutians, under the direction of Dr. 
Schaeffer, a German, who had been the surgeon of the Suwarrow, 
with the intention, apparently, of taking possession of one of the 
Sandwich Islands. These men landed first at Owyhee, whence 



328 RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. [1819. 

they passed successively to Woahoo and Atooi ; and in the latter 
island they remained a year, committing many irregularities, with- 
out, however, effecting, in any way, the supposed objects of their 
expedition, until they were at length forced to submit to the author- 
ities of .Tamahamaha, and to quit the islands.* 

Expeditions were also made by the Russians to Bering's Strait, 
and the seas beyond it, for the purpose of determining the question 
as to the separation of Asia and America, which, though long before 
supposed to have been ascertained, was again rendered doubtful by 
some circumstances of recent occurrence. With this object. Cap- 
tain Otto von Kotzebue sailed from Cronstadt in the ship Ruric, 
which had been fitted out at the expense of the ex-chancellor 
Romanzof, and, in the summer of 1816, penetrated through the 
strait into the Arctic Sea; but, although he surveyed the coasts of 
both continents on that sea more minutely than any navigator who 
had preceded him, he was unable to advance so far in any direction 
as Cook had gone in 1778. In 1820, two other vessels were sent 
to that part of the ocean, with the same objects ; but no detailed 
account of their voyage has been made public. In the mean time, 
however, the doubts as to the separation of the two continents were 
completely removed, by Captains Wrangel and Anjou, who sur- 
veyed the eastern parts of the Siberian coast with great care, in 
defiance of the most dreadful difficulties and dangers.f 

Nor did the Russians neglect to improve the administration of 
their affairs on the North Pacific coasts. In 1817, Captain Golow- 
nin was despatched from Europe, in the sloop of war Kamtchatka, 
with a commission from the emperor to inquire into the state of the 
Russian dominions in America ; and, upon the report brought back 
by him, it was resolved that a radical change should be made in the 
management of those possessions. Accordingly, upon the renewal 
of the charter of the company on the 8th of July, 1819, regulations 
were put in execution, by which the governor and other chief 
officers of Russian America became directly responsible for their 

* For further particulars on this subject, the reader — if he should consider the 
matter worth investigating — may consult Kotzebue's narrative of his voyage to the 
Pacific, in 1815-16, and Jarves's History of the Sandwich Islands. 

t See the agreeable and instructive narrative, by Kotzebue, of his voyage in search 
of a north-east passage. Wrangel's account of his expedition, which has been re- 
cently published, is a most interesting work, not only from the multitude of new facts 
in geography, and in many of the physical sciences, which it communicates, but also 
from the admiration which it inspires for the courage, good temper, and good feeling, 
of the adventurous narrator. Wrangel has since been, for many years, the governor- 
general of Russian America, and is now an admiral in the service of his country. 



1819.] OCCURRENCES AT THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 329 

conduct, and the condition of all classes of the population of those 
countries was materially benefited. The death of Baranof ren- 
dered the introduction of these reforms less difficult ; and the 
superintendence of the colonies has ever since been committed to 
honorable and enlightened men, generally officers in the Russian 
navy, under whose direction the abuses formerly prevailing to so 
frightful an extent, have been gradually removed or abated.* 

About the same time, an event occurred, of great importance in 
the history of a country which is, no doubt, destined materially to 
influence the political condition of the north-western coasts and 
regions of America. Tamahamaha, king of all the Sandwich 
Islands, died in May, 1819, at the age of sixty-three, and was 
succeeded in power by his son, or reputed son, Riho Riho, or 
Tamahamaha Il.f Of the merits and demerits of Tamahamaha, 
it would be out of place here to speak at length. He was a chief 
of note at the time of the discovery of the islands by Cook, when 
his character had been already formed, and the seeds of much that 
was evil had been sown, and had taken firm root in his mind. No 
sooner, however, was he brought into contact with civilized men, 
than he began to learn, and, what was more difficult, to unlearn. 
His first objects were of a nature purely selfish. He sought power 
to gratify his ambition and his thirst for pleasure, but he used it, 
when obtained, for nobler ends ; and of all the sovereigns of the 
earth, his contemporaries, no one certainly attempted or eflfected as 
much, in proportion to his means, for the advancement of his 
people, as this barbarian chief of a little ocean island. 

Upon the death of Tamahamaha, great changes were effected in 
the affairs of the Sandwich Islands. The old king had resolutely 
maintained the religion of his forefathers, though he suppressed 
many of its horrible ceremonies and observances. Riho Riho, how- 
ever, soon after his accession, abolished that religion, and embraced 
the faith of the white men who came to his islands in great ships 
from distant countries. His principal chiefs, Boki and Krymakoo, 
(or Kalaimaku,) had been previously, in August, 1819, baptized 
and received into the bosom of the Roman Catholic church by the 

* Statische und ethnographische Nachrichten, obcr die Russischen Besitzungen an 
der NordwestkQste von Amerika — Statistical and ethnographical Notices concerning 
the Russian Possessions on the North-West Coasts of America — by Admiral von 
Wrangel, late governor-general of those countries, published at St. Petersburg, 
in 1839. 

t These names are now generally written Liho Liho and Kamehamaha. 

42 



3^0 CHRISTIANITY IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. [1819. 

chaplain of the French corvette L'Uranie, during her voyage 
around the world under Captain Freycinet; and, early in 1820, a 
vessel reached the islands from Boston, bringing a number of 
missionaries of the Presbyterian or Congregationalist sects, who 
have been established there ever since, and have exercised, as will 
be hereafter shown, a powerful and generally beneficial influence 
over the people and their rulers.* 

* The American missionaries, immediately on entering the Sandwich Islands, 
began the study of the language through which their instructions were to be con- 
veyed. This language they found to be the same throughout the group ; but, as 
considerable differences existed in its pronunciation in different islands, they selected 
the most pure, or the most generally used, of the dialects, in which they formed a 
vocabulary, employing English letters to represent the sounds, but wisely confining 
each letter to the expression of a fixed sound. The History of the American Board 
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which may be considered as official authority 
on all matters connected with the missions in the Sandwich Islands, contains, at 
p. 112, the following clear and concise view of the system of orthography thus 
adopted : — 

" The Hawaian [Owyheean] alphabet contains twelve letters only. It has five 
vowels — a, sounded as a m father ; e, as a in hate; i, as ee in feet; o, as o in pole ; 
and u, as oo in boot ; and seven consonants — h, k, I, m, n, p., and lo, sounded as in 
English. The long English sound of i is represented by oi, as in Lahaina, where 
the second syllable is accented, and pronounced like the English word high. The 
second syllable, wai, of Hawaii, the name of the largest of the islands, is pronounced 
like the first syllable of the English name IVijman ; and, giving the letters the usual 
English sounds, it might be spelled Ha-wij-ee. The first syllable should be pro- 
nounced very slightly, and a strong accent placed on the second. The sound of oio 
(in cow) is represented by au ; as, Maui, pronounced Moio-ee. The natives do not 
distinguish the sounds o? k and t from each other, but call the same island sometimes 
Kaui and Taui, without perceiving the difference. In the same way, d, I, and r, are 
confounded, and the same place is called indifferently Hido, Hilo, or Hiro. The 
same occurs in respect to w and v. In fact, these interchangeable consonants are 
very slightly and indistinctly uttered, so that a foreigner is at a loss to know which 
the speaker intends to use." 

Agreeably to this system, the missionaries have published a translation of the 
Bible, and many other books, in the language of the Sandwich Islands. It is, how- 
ever, much to be regretted that they and their friends, from whom nearly all the in- 
formation is now received respecting that part of the world, should think proper 
to apply their orthography exclusively, not only to the names of places and per- 
sons which have recently gained notoriety, but likewise to those with which every 
one has become familiar through the journals of Cook and Vancouver. Names are, 
indeed, not written uniformly in the journals here mentioned ; but the differences are 
in general slight, far less than between any one of the old names and that assigned 
to the same object in the new system : and the best informed men, who have not 
studied that system thoroughly, will scarcely be able to discover that the Ilavaii of 
the missionaries is Owyhee; that Keilakakua is the Karakakooa rendered sacred as 
the scene of Cook's death ; and that Kaumalii and Kamehamcha are no others than 
their old acquaintances, Tamoree and Tamahamaha, under new titles. What would 
be thought of an English history of Germany, in which places and persons appeared 
only under their German names — in which Vienna should be written IVien; Moravia, 
Maehren; Bohemia, Boehmen ; Francis, Franz; Charles, Karl; &c. .-' 



331 



CHAPTER XVI. 

1820 TO 1828. 

Bill reported by a Committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, 
for the Occupation of tlie Columbia River — Ukase of the Emperor of Russia, with 
Regard to the North Pacific Coasts — Negotiations between the Governments of Great 
Britain, Russia, and the United States — Conventions between the United States 
and Russia, and between Great Britain and Russia — Further Negotiations between 
the United States and Great Britain relative to the North-West Coasts — Indefinite 
Extension of the Arrangement for the joint Occupancy of the Territories west of 
the Rocky Mountains, by the British and the Americans. 

Before 1820, little, if any thing, relative to the countries west of 
the Rocky Mountains had been said in the Congress rf the United 
States ; and those countries had excited very little interest among 
the citizens of the federal republic in general. 

In December of that year, however, immediately after the ratifica- 
tion of the Florida treaty by Spain, a resolution was passed by the 
House of Representatives in Congress, on the motion of Mr. Floyd, 
of Virginia — "that an inquiry should be made, as to the situation 
of the settlements on the Pacific Ocean, and as to the expediency 
of occupying the Columbia River." The committee to which this 
resolution was referred, presented, in January following, a long 
report, containing a sketch of the history of colonization in Amer- 
ica, with an account of the fur trade in the northern and north- 
western sections of the continent, and a description of the country 
claimed by the United States ; from all which are drawn the con- 
clusions, — that the whole territory of America bordering upon the 
Pacific, from the 41st degree of latitude to the 53d, if not to the 
60th, belongs of right to the United States, in virtue of the purchase 
of Louisiana from France, in 1803, of the acquisition of the titles of 
Spain by the Florida treaty, and of the discoveries and settlements 
of American citizens ; — that the trade of this territory in furs and 
other articles, and the fisheries on its coasts, might be rendered 
highly productive ; and — that these advantages might be secured 
to citizens of the United States exclusively, by establishing " small 
trading guards" on the most north-eastern point of the Missouri, 



339 RUSSIAN UKASE. [1822. 

and at the mouth of the Columbia, and by favoring emigration to 
the country west of the R,ocky Mountains, not only from the 
United States, but also from China. To this report the com- 
mittee appended " a bill for the occupation of the Columbia, and 
the regulation of the trade with the Indians in the territories of 
the United States." Without making any remarks upon the char- 
acter of this report, it may be observed, that the terms of the bill 
are directly at variance with the provisions of the third article of the 
convention of October, 1818, between the United States and Great 
Britain ; as the Columbia could not possibly be free and open to the 
vessels, citizens, and subjects, of both nations, if it were occupied by 
either. The bill was suffered to lie on the table of the House during 
the remainder of the session : in the ensuing year, it was again 
brought before Congress, and an estimate was obtained, from the 
navy commissioners, of the expense of transporting cannon, ammu- 
nition, and stores, by sea, to the mouth of the Columbia ; but no 
further notice was taken of the subject until the winter of 1823. 

Measures had, in the mean time, been adopted by the Russian 
government, with regard to the north-west coasts of America, which 
strongly excited the attention of both the other powers claiming 
dominion in that quarter. 

Soon after the renewal of the charter of the Russian American 
Company, a ukase, or imperial decree, was issued at St. Petersburg, 
by which the whole west coast of America, north of the 51st par- 
allel, and the whole east coast of Asia, north of the latitude of 45 
degrees 50 minutes, with all the adjacent and intervening islands, 
were declared to belong exclusively to Russia ; and foreigners were 
prohibited, under heavy penalties, from approaching within a 
hundred miles of any of those coasts, except in cases of extreme 
necessity.* 

This decree was officially communicated to the government of 
the United States in February, 1822, by the Chevalier de Poletica, 
Russian minister at Washington, between whom and Mr. J. Q, 
Adams, the American secretary of state, a correspondence imme- 
diately took place on the subject. Mr. Adams, in his first note, 
simply made known the surprise of the president at the assertion 
of a claim, on the part of Russia, to so large a portion of the west 

* The ukase, dated September 4th, 1821, and the correspondence betweep the 
Russian and American governments with regard to it, may be found at length among 
the documents accompanying President Monroe's message to Congress, of April 
17th, 1822. 



1822.] DISCUSSION OF THE RUSSIAN CLAIMS. 333 

coasts of America, and at the promulgation, by that power, of rules 
of restriction so deeply affecting the rights of the United States 
and their citizens ; and he desired to know whether the minister 
was authorized to give explanations of the grounds of the right 
claimed, upon principles generally recognized by the laws and 
usages of nations. 

To this M. Poletica replied by a long letter, containing a sketch — 
generally erroneous — of the discoveries of his countrymen on the 
north-west coasts of America, which extended, according to his 
idea, southward as far as the 49th parallel of latitude. He de- 
fended the assumption of the 51st parallel as the southern limit of 
the possessions of his sovereign, upon the ground that this line was 
midway between the mouth of the Columbia, where the citizens of 
the United States had made an establishment, and the Russian 
settlement of Sitka ; and he finally maintained that his government 
would be justifiable in exercising the rights of sovereignty over the 
ivhole of the Pacific north of the said parallel, inasmuch as that sec- 
tion of the sea was bounded on both sides by Russian territories, and 
was thus, in fact, a close sea. The secretary of state, in return, 
asserted that, " from the period of the existence of the United 
States as an independent nation, their vessels had freely navigated 
those seas ; and the right to navigate them was a part of that inde- 
pendence, as also the right of their citizens to trade, even in arms 
and munitions of war, with the aboriginal natives of the north- 
west coast of America, who were not under the territorial jurisdic- 
tion of other nations." He denied in toto the claim of the Russians 
to any part of America south of the 55th degree of latitude, on 
the ground that this parallel was declared, in the charter* of the 
Russian American Company, to be the southern limit of the dis- 

* The first article of the charter or privilege granted by the emperor Paul to the 
Russian American Company, on the 8th of July, 1799, is as follows : — 

" In virtue of the discovery, by Russian navigators, of a part of the coast of 
America in the north-east, beginning from the 55th degree of latitude, and of 
chains of islands extending from Kamtchatka, northward towards America, and 
southward towards Japan, Russia has acquired the right of possessing those lands; 
and ihe said company is authorized to enjoy all the advantages of industry, and all 
the establishments, upon the said coast of America, in the north-east, from the 55th 
degree of latitude to Bering's Strait, and beyond it, as also upon the Aleutian and 
Kurile Islands, and the others, situated in the eastern Arctic Ocean." 

By the second article, — 

" The company may make new discoveries, not only north, but also south, of the 
said 55th parallel of latitude, and may occupy and bring under the dominion of Rus- 
sia all territories thus discovered, observing the rule, that such territories should not 
have been previously occupied and placed under subjection by another nation." 



334 EXTRAVAGANT PRETENSIONS OF RUSSIA. [1822. 

coveries of the Russians in 1799 ; since which period they had made 
no discoveries or estabhshments south of the said Hne, on the 
coast now claimed by them. With regard to the suggestion that 
the Russian government might justly exercise sovereignty over the 
Pacific Ocean as a close sea, because it claims territories both on 
the Asiatic and the American shores, Mr. Adams merely observed, 
that the distance between those shores, on the parallel of 51 degrees 
north, is four thousand miles ; and he concluded by expressing the 
persuasion of the president that the citizens of the United States 
would remain unmolested in the prosecution of their lawful com- 
merce, and that no effect would be given to a prohibition manifestly 
incompatible with their rights. 

The Russian minister plenipotentiary, a few days after the receipt 
of Mr. Adams's last communication, sent another note, supporting 
the rights of his sovereign, in which he advanced " the authentic 
fact, that, in 1789, the Spanish packet St. Charles, commanded by 
Captain Haro, found, in the latitude of forty-eight and forty-nine 
degrees, Russian establishments, to the number of eight, consisting, 
in the whole, of twenty families, and four hundred and sixty-two 
individuals, who were the descendants of the companions of Cap- 
tain Tchirikof, supposed until then to have perished." Respecting 
this ^^ authentic fact, ''^ it has been shown, in the account* already 
given of the Spanish voyage to which the ChevaUer Poletica refers, 
that Martinez and Haro did find eight Russian establishments on 
the North Pacific coast of America in 1788, but that they were all 
situated in the latitudes oi fifty-eight and fifty-nine degrees, and that 
the persons inhabiting them had all been, a short time previous, 
transported thither, from Kamtchatka and the Aleutian Islands, by 
Schelikof, the founder of the Russian American Company. The 
minister doubtless derived his information from the introduction to 
the journal of Marchand's voyage ; but he neglected to read the note 
appended to that account, in which the error is explained. 

The prohibitory regulation of the Russian emperor, and the 
correspondence relating to it, were immediately submitted to the 
Congress of the United States ; and, in the ensuing year, a nego- 
tiation was commenced at St. Petersburg, the object of which was 
to settle amicably and definitively the limits of the territories on 
the north-west side of America, claimed by the two nations re- 
spectively, and the terms upon which their navigation and trade in 
the North Pacific were in future to be conducted. A negotiation, 

• See p. 186. 



1823.] DECLARATION OF PRESIDENT MONROE. 335 

for similar purposes, was, at the same time, in progress at St. Peters- 
burg, between the governments of Russia and Great Britain ; the 
latter power having formally protested against the claims and princi- 
ples advanced in the ukase of 1821, immediately on its appearance, 
and subsequently, during the session of the congress of European 
sovereigns at Verona.* Under these circumstances, a desire was 
felt, on the part of the government of the United States, that a joint 
convention should be concluded between tlie three nations having 
claims to territories on the north-west side of America; and the 
envoys of the republic at London and St. Petersburg were severally 
instructed to propose a stipulation to the effect that no settlement 
should, during the next ten years, be made, in those territories, by 
Russians south of the latitude of 55 degrees, by citizens of the 
United States north of the latitude of 51 degrees, or by British 
subjects south of the 51st or north of the 55th parallels. 

This proposition for a joint convention was not accepted by 
either of the governments to which it was addressed ; the principal 
ground of the refusal by each being the declaration made by Presi- 
dent Monroe in his message to Congress, at the commencement of 
the session of 1823, that — in the discussions and arrangements then 
going on with respect to the north-west coasts — '" the occasion had 
been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights 
and interests of the United States are involved, that the American 
continents, by the free and independent condition ivhich they have 
assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects 
for colonization by any European power ^ f Against this declaration, 

* Debate in Parliament on the inquiry made by Sir James Mackintosh on this 
subject, May 21, 1823. 

t The message of December 2d, 1823, containing this declaration, also announced 
the resolution of the United States to view " as the manifestation of an unfriendly 
disposition" towards themselves any attempt, on the part of a European power, to 
oppress or control the destiny of any of the independent states of America. This 
noble resolution was taken upon the assurance that the United States would, if ne- 
cessary, be sustained in enforcing it by Great Britain, without whose cooperation it 
would have been ineffective, certainly as to the prevention of the attempts. The 
circumstances which induced the American government thus, at the same time, 
openly to offer a blow at the only nation on whose assistance it could depend, in case 
the anticipated attempts should be made by the despotic powers of Europe, have not 
been disclosed. That it is the true policy of the United States, by all lawful means, 
to resist the extension of European dominion in America, and to confine its limits, 
and abridge its duration, wherever it may actually exist, is a proposition which no 
arguments are required to demonstrate, either to American citizens or to European 
sovereigns; but this proclamation, by the government of the United States, of its 
intention to pursue those ends, could have no other effect than to delay the attainment 
of them, as it has evidently done. 



336 RECOMMENDATIONS OF GENERAL JESUP. [1823. 

which — however just and politic might have been the principle 
announced — was unquestionably imprudent, or at least premature, 
the British and the Russian governments severally protested ; and 
as there were many other points on which it was not probable that 
the three powers could agree, it was determined that the negotia- 
tions should be continued, as they had been commenced, separately 
at London and at St. Petersburg. 

Another publication, equally impolitic on the part of the Ameri- 
can government, soon after contributed to render more difficult the 
settlement of the question of boundaries on the Pacific between the 
' United States and Great Britain. 

A select committee, appointed by the House of Representatives 
of the United States, in December, 1823, with instructions to inquire 
into the expediency of occupying the mouth of the Columbia, 
requested General Thomas S. Jesup, the quartermaster-general of the 
army, to communicate his opinions respecting the propriety of the 
measure proposed, as well as its practicability and the best method 
of executing it; in answer to which that officer sent, on the 16th 
of February, 1824, a letter containing an exposition of his views of 
the true policy of the United States with regard to the north-west 
coasts and territories of America, and of the means by which they 
might be carried into effect. Leaving aside the question as to the 
rights of the United States, he considered the possession and military 
command of the Columbia and of the Upper Missouri necessary for 
the protection, not only of the fur trade, but also of the whole 
western frontier of the republic, which is every where in contact 
with numerous, powerful, and warlike tribes of savages : and, for 
this purpose, he recommended the immediate despatch of two 
hundred men across the continent to the mouth of the Columbia, 
while two merchant vessels should transport thither the cannon, 
ammunition, materials, and stores, requisite for the first establish- 
ment ; after which, four or five intermediate posts should be formed 
at points between Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, (the most western 
spot then occupied by American troops,) and the Pacific. By such 
means, says the letter, " present protection would be afforded to 
our traders, and, on the expiration of the privilege granted to 
British subjects to trade on the waters of the Columbia, we should 
be enabled to remove them from our territory, and to secure the 
whole trade to our own citizens." 

The report of tiie committee, with the letter from General Jesup 
annexed, was ordered to lie on the table of the House, and nothing 



1824.] NEGOTIATION AT LONDON. 337 

more was done on the subject during that session ; the papers, 
however, were both published, and they immediately attracted the 
attention of the British ministry. In a conference held at London, 
in July following, between the American envoy, Mr. Rush, and the 
British commissioners, Messrs. Huskisson and Stratford Canning, 
the latter gentlemen commented upon the observations of General 
Jesup, particularly upon those respecting the removal of British 
traders from the territories of the Columbia, which, they said, " were 
calculated to put Great Britain especially upon her guard, appear- 
ing, as they did, at a moment when a friendly negotiation was 
pending between the two powers for the adjustment of their relative 
and conflicting claims to that entire district of country." 

It is moreover certain, from the accounts of Mr. Rush, as well as 
from those given subsequently by Mr. Gallatin, that the publication 
of General Jesup's letter, and the declaration in President Monroe's 
message against the establishment of European colonies in America, 
rendered the British government much less disposed to any con- 
cession, with regard to the north-west territories, than it would 
otherwise have been ; and there is reason to believe, from many 
circumstances, that they tended materially to produce a union of 
views, approaching to a league, between that power and Russia, 
which has proved very disadvantageous to the interests of the 
United States on the North Pacific coasts. 

The negotiation respecting the north-west coasts of America, 
commenced at London in April, 1824, was not long continued ; 
the parties being so entirely at variance with regard to facts as well 
as principles, that the impossibility of eflecting any new arrange- 
ment soon became evident. Mr. Rush,* the American plenipoten- 
tiary, began by claiming for the United States the exclusive pos- 
session and sovereignty of the whole country west of the Rocky 
Mountains, from the 42d degree of latitude, at least as far north 
as the 51st, between which parallels all the waters of the Columbia 
were then supposed to be included. In support of this claim, he 
cited, as in 1818, the facts — of the first discovery of the Columbia 
by Gray — of the first exploration of that river from its sources to the 
sea by Lewis and Clarke — of the first settlement on its banks by 
the Pacific Fur Company, " a settlement which was reduced by 
the arms of the British during the late war, but was formally sur- 

* Letter from Mr. Rush to the secretary of state, of August 12th, 1824, among the 
documents accompanjing President Adams's message to Congress of January 31st, 
1826. 

43 



338 CLAIMS OF THE U. STATES AND OF GREAT BRITAIN. [1824. 

rendered up to the United States at the return of peace," and — of 
the transfer by Spain to the United States of all her titles to those 
territories, founded upon the well-known discoveries of her navi- 
gators ; and he insisted, agreeably to express instructions from his 
government, " that no part of the American continent was thence- 
forth to be open to colonization from Europe." In explanation and 
defence of this declaration, Mr. Rush " referred to the principles 
settled by the Nootka Sound convention of 1790, and remarked, 
that Spain had now lost all her exclusive colonial rights, recognized 
under that convention : first, by the fact of the independence of the 
South American states and of Mexico ; and next, by her express 
renunciation of all her rights, of whatever kind, above the 42d 
degree of north latitude, to the United States. Those new states 
would themselves now possess the rights incident to their condition 
of political independence ; and the claims of the United States 
above the 42d parallel as high up as 60 degrees — claims as well 
in their own right as by succession to the title of Spain — would 
henceforth necessarily preclude other nations from forming colonial 
establishments upon any part of the American continents." 

Messrs. Huskisson and Canning, in reply, denied that the 
circumstance of a merchant vessel of the United States having 
penetrated the north-west coast of America at the Columbia River, 
could give to the United States a claim along that coast, both 
north and south of the river, over territories which, they insisted, 
had been previously discovered by Great Britain herself, in expe- 
ditions fitted out under the authority and with the resources of the 
nation. They declared that British subjects had formed settle- 
ments upon the Columbia, or upon rivers flowing into it west of 
the Rocky Mountains, coe al with, if not prior to, the settlement 
made by American citizens at its mouth ; and that the surrender of 
that settlement after the late war was in fulfilment of the treaty of 
Ghent, and did not affect the question of right in any way. They 
treated as false or doubtful the accounts of many of xhe Spanish 
voyages in the Pacific ; alleging, as more authentic, the narrative 
of Drake's expedition, from which it appeared that he had, in 
1579, explored the west coast of America to the 4Sth parallel of 
latitude, five or six degrees farther north than the Spaniards them- 
selves pretended to have advanced before that period : and they 
refused to admit that any title could be derived from the mere fact 
of Spanish navigators having first seen the coast at particular spots, 
even when this was capable of being fully substantiated. Finally, 



1824.] PROPOSITIONS FOR PARTITION. 339 

they assured Mr. Rush that their government would never assent to 
the claim set forth hy him respecting the territory watered by the 
Columbia River and its tributaries, which, besides being essentially 
objectionable in its general bearings, had also the elTect of inter- 
fering directly with the actual rights of Great Britain, derived from 
use, occupancy, and settlement ; asserting, at the same time, that 
" they considered the unoccupied parts of America just as much 
open as heretofore to colonization by Great Britain, as well as by 
other European powers, agreeably to the convention of 1790, 
between the British and Spanish governments, and that the United 
States would have no right to take umbrage at the establishment 
of new colonies from Europe, in any such parts of the American 
continent." * 

After much discussion on these points, Mr. Rush presented a 
proposal from his government, that any country west of the Rocky 
Mountains, which might be claimed by the United States, or by 
Great Britain, should be free and open to the citizens or subjects 
of both nations for ten years from the date of the agreement : 
Provided, that, during this period, no settlements were to be made 
by British subjects north of the 55th or south of the 51st degrees 
of latitude, nor by American citizens north of the latter parallel. 
To this proposal, which Mr. Rush afterwards varied by substituting 
the 49th parallel of latitude for the 51st, Messrs. Huskisson and 
Canning replied by a counter proposal, to the effect, that the 
boundary between the territories of the two nations, beyond the 
Rocky Mountains, should pass from those mountains westward 
along the 49th parallel of latitude, to the north-easternmost branch 
of the Columbia River, called Macgillivray's River on the maps, 
and thence down the middle of the stream, to the Pacific ; the 
British possessing the country north and west of such line, and the 
United States that which lay south and east of it : Provided, that 
the subjects or citizens of both nations should be equally at liberty, 
during the .space of ten years from the date of the agreement, to 
pass by land or by water through all the territories on both sides of 
tlic boundary, and to retain and use their establishments already 
formed in any part of them. The British plenipotentiaries at the 
same time declared that this their proposal was one from which 

* Protocol of the twelfth conference between the plenipotentiaries, held June 26th, 
1824, among the documents annexed to President Adams's message to Congress of 
January 31st, 1826. 



340 PROPOSITIONS FOR PARTITION. [1824. 

Great Britain would certainly not depart ; and, as all prospect of 
compromise was thus destroyed, the negotiation ended. 

In this discussion between the United States and Great Britain, 
upon the subject of their respective claims to the sovereignty of 
the countries west of the Rocky Mountains, the grounds of those 
claims were first made to assume a form somewhat definite ; and 
this may be considered as principally due to the labor and pene- 
tration of Mr. Rush, who seems to have been the first to inquire 
carefully into the facts of the case. The introduction by him of the 
Nootka convention, as an element in the controversy, was according 
to express instructions from his government.* It appears to have 
been wholly unnecessary, and was certainly impolitic. No allusion 
had been made to that arrangement in any of the previous discus- 
sions with regard to the north-west coasts, and it was doubtless 
considered extinct ; but when it was thus brought forward by the 
American government in connection with the declaration against 
European colonization, as a settlement of general principles with 
regard to those coasts, an argument was afforded in favor of the 
subsistence of the convention, of which the British government did 
not fail to take advantage, as will be hereafter shown. 



* " The principles settled by the Nootka Sound convention of 28th October, 1790, 
were — 

" ' 1st. That the rights of fishing in tlie South Seas; of trading with the natives of 
the north-west coast of America; and of making settlements on the coast itself, for 
the purposes of that trade, north of the actual settlements of Spain, were common to 
all the European nations, and, of course, to the United States. 

" '2d. That, so far as the actual settlements of Spain had extended, she possessed 
the exclusive rights territorial, and of navigation and fishery ; extending to the dis- 
tance of ten miles from the coast so actually occupied. 

" ' 3d. That, on the coasts of South Jlmerica, and the adjacent islands south of the 
parts already occupied by Spain, no settlement should thereafter be made either by 
British or Spanish subjects; but, on both sides, should be retained the liberty of land- 
ing and of erecting temporary buildings for the purposes of the fishery. These rights 
were, also, of course, enjoyed by the people of the United States. 

" ' The exclusive rights of Spain to any part of the American continents have 
ceased. That portion of the convention, therefore, which recognizes the exclusive 
colonial rights of Spain on these continents, though confirmed, as between Great 
Britain and Spain, by the first additional article to the treaty of the 5th of July, 1814, 
has been extinguished by the fact of the independence of the South American nations 
and of Mexico. Those independent nations will possess the rights incident to that 
condition, and their territories will, of course, be subject to no exclusive right of nav- 
igation in their vicinity, or of access to them, by any foreign nation. 

" ' A necessary consequence of this state of things will be, that the American con- 
tinents, henceforth, will no longer be subject to colonization. Occupied by civilized, 
independent nations, they will be accessible to Europeans, and each other, on that 



1824.] CONVENTION BETWEEN THE U. STATES AND RUSSIA. 341 

In the mean time, the negotiation between the United States and 
Russia was terminated by a convention, signed at St. Petersburg, 
on the 5th of April, 1824, containing five articles: by the first of 
which, it is agreed that the respective citizens or subjects of the 
two nations shall not be disturbed or restrained in navigating or in 
fishing in any part of the Pacific Ocean, or in the power of resort- 
ing to the coasts upon points which may not already have been 
occupied, for the purpose of trading with the natives; saving, 
always, the restrictions and conditions determined by the following 
articles, to wit: by the second article, the citizens of the United 
States shall not resort to any point on the nortli-west coasts of 
America, where there is a Russian establishment, without the 
permission of the governor or commandant of the place, and vice 
versa : by the third article, neither tiie United States nor their 
citizens shall, in future, form any establishment on those coasts, or 
the adjacent islands, north of the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes, 
and the Russians shall make none south of that latitude. " It is, 
nevertheless, understood," says the fourth article, " that during a 
term of ten years, counting from the signature of the present con- 
vention, the ships of both powers, or which belong to their citizens 
or subjects respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without any 
hinderance whatever, the interior seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks, 
upon the coast mentioned in the preceding article, for the purpose 



footing alone ; and the Pacific Ocean, in every part of it, will remain open to the 
navigation of all nations, in like manner with the Atlantic.'" — Instructions of the 
Hon. J. Q. Adams, secretary of state of the United States, to Rlr. Rush, dated July 
22d, 1823, among the documents accompanying President Adams's messao-e to Con- 
gress of January 31st, 1826. 

With regard to the portion of these instructions here extracted, the reader is re- 
ferred to the convention of 17L(0 itself, and to the remarks on it in pp. 213, 258, and 
318, of this History, from which it will be seen that the convention, in all its stipula- 
tions, was simply an international agreement between Spain and Great Britain, bind- 
ing them and their subjects only until its expiration, which took place, in consequence 
of the war, in 1796, and applying in no respect, either as to advantages or restrictions, 
to any other nation whatsoever; and that, consequently, other nations had the same 
right to occupy the vacant coasts of America, and to navigate and fish in the adjacent 
seas, within ten leagues, (the distance defined by the convention,) and even within 
ten miles, of the parts occupied by Spain, after, as before, the signature of that ao-ree- 
ment; and Spain had as much right, after, as before, that event, to prohibit them 
from so doing. If the Nootka convention were, as asserted by the secretary of state, 
a definitive settlement of general principles of national law respecting navigation 
and fishery in the seas, and trade and settlement on the coasts, here mentioned, it 
would be difficult to resist the pretensions of the British plenipotentiaries with regard 
to the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, as set forth in the statement (Proofs 
and Illustrations, letter H) presented by them to Mr. Gallatin in 1826. 



342 TREATY BETWEEN RUSSIA AND GREAT BRITAIN. [1825. 

of fishing and trading with the natives of the country : " it being, 
however, stipulated by the remaining fifth article, that spirituous 
hquors, fire-arms, other arms, powder, and munitions of war, are 
always excepted from this same commerce permitted by the fourth 
article, and that, in case of contravention of this part of the agree- 
ment, the nation whose citizens or subjects may have committed 
the delinquency, shall alone have the right to punish them.* 

This convention does not appear to offer any grounds for dispute 
as to the construction of its stipulations, but is, on the contrary, clear 
and equally favorable to both nations. The rights of both parties to 
navigate every part of the Pacific, and to trade with the natives of 
any places on the coasts of that sea, not already occupied, are first 
distinctly acknowledged ; after which it is agreed, in order to pre- 
vent future difficulties, that each should submit to certain limitations 
as to navigation, trade, and settlement, on the north-west coasts of 
America, either perpetually or during a fixed period. Neither party 
claimed, directly or by inference, the immediate sovereignty of any 
spot on the American coasts not occupied by its citizens or sub- 
jects, or acknowledged the right of the other to the possession of 
any spot not so occupied ; the definitive regulation of limits being 
deferred until the establishments and other interests of the two 
nations in that quarter of the world should have acquired such a 
development as to render more precise stipulations necessary. 

The Russian government, however, construed this convention as 
giving to itself the absolute sovereignty of all the west coasts of 
America north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, while deny- 
ing any such right on the part of the United States to the coasts 
extending southward from that line. In February, 1825, a treaty 
was concluded between Russia and Great Britain, relative to North- 
West America, containing provisions similar to those of the con- 
vention between R,ussia and the United States, expressed in nearly 
the same words, but also containing many other provisions, some 
of which are directly at variance with the evident sense of the last- 
mentioned agreement. Tiius it is established, by the treaty, that 
" the line of dcmarkation betiveen the jjossessions of the high contract- 
ing parties upon the coast of the continent, and the islands of 
America to the yiorth-ivcst,^' shall be drawn from the southernmost 
point of Prince of Wales's Island, in latitude of 54 degrees 40 



* This convention will be found at length among the Proofs and Illustrationa, 
in the concluding part of this volume, under the letter K, No. 4. 



1825.] TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND RUSSIA. 343 

minutes eastward, to the great inlet in the continent, called Port- 
land Channel, and along the middle of that inlet, to tiie 56tli /T 
degree of latitude, whence it shall follow the summit of the moun- "^ 
tains bordering the coast, within ten leagues, north-westward, to >;>^ 
Mount St. Elias, and thence north, in the course of the 141st ^ 
meridian west from Greenwich, to the Frozen Ocean ; " which *5 ^ 
line," says the treaty, " shall form the limit between the Russian je ^t 
and the British possessions in the continent of America to the north- -^ -v 
west ; " it being also agreed that the British should forever have ;: 
the right to navigate any streams flowing into the Pacific from the "^ 
interior, across the line of demarkation..* 

That this treaty virtually annulled the convention, of the pre- 
ceding year, between Russia and the United States, is evident ; for 
the convention rested entirely upon the assumption that the United 
States possessed the same right to the part of the American coast 
south of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, which Russia pos- 
sessed to the part north of that parallel : and the treaty distinctly ac- 
knowledged the former or southern division of the coast to be the 
property of Great Britain. It does not, however, appear that any 
representation on the subject was addressed by the American gov- 
ernment 10 that of Russia ; and the vessels of the United States 
continued to frequent all the unoccupied parts of the north-west 
coast, and to trade with the natives uninterruptedly, until 1834, 
when, as will be hereafter shown, they were formally prohibited, 
by the Russian authorities, from visiting any place on that coast 
north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, on the ground that 
their right to do so had expired, agreeably to the convention of 
1824. 

In December, 1824, President Monroe, in his last annual mes- 
sage to Congress, recommended the estabhshment of a military post 
at the mouth of the Columbia, or at some other point within the 
acknowledged limits of the United States, in order to afford pro- 
tection to their commerce and fisiieries in the Pacific, to conciliate 
the Indians of the north-west, and to promote the intercourse be- 

* See Proofs and Illustrations, at the end of this volume, under tlie letter K, No. 5. 
Some curious particulars relative to the negotiation which led to this treaty may be 
found in the Political Life of the Hon. George Canning, by A. G. Stapleton, chap, 
xiv. Mr. Canning, it seems, was anxious for the conclusion of a joint convention 
between Great Britain, the United States, and Russia, as regards the freedom of 
navigation of the Pacific, until the appearance of the declaration in the message of 
President Monroe above mentioned, after which he determined only to treat with 
each of the other parties separately. 



344 MOVEMENTS IN CONGRESS. [1824. 

tween those territories and the settled portions of the republic ; 
to effect which object, he advised that appropriations should be 
made for the despatch of a frigate, with engineers, to explore the 
mouth of the Columbia and the adjacent shores. The same 
measures were, in the following year, also recommended by Presi- 
dent Adams, among the various plans for the advantage of the 
United States and of the world in general, to which he requested 
the attention of Congress, in his message, at the commencement 
of the session. In compliance with this recommendation, a com- 
mittee was appointed by the House of Representatives, the chairman 
of which, Mr. Baylies, of Massachusetts, presented two reports,* 
containing numerous details with respect to — the history of discove- 
ry and trade in North- West America, — the geography, soil, climate, 
productions, and inhabitants, of the portion claimed by the United 
States, — the number and value of the furs procured there, — the 
expenses of surveying the coasts and of forming military establish- 
ments for its occupation, and many other matters relating to that 
part of the world; in consideration whereof, the committee intro- 
duced a bill for the immediate execution of the measures proposed 
by the president. This bill was laid on the table of the House, and 
the subject was not again agitated in Congress until 1828.' 

Meanwhile, the period of ten years, during which the countries 
claimed by the United States or by Great Britain, west of the Rocky 
Mountains, were, agreeably to the convention of 1818, to remain 
free and open to the citizens or subjects of both nations, was draw- 
ing to a close ; and a strong desire was manifested, on the part of 
the American government, that some definitive arrangement with 
regard to those countries should be concluded between the two 
powers, before the expiration of the term. The British secretary 
for foreign affairs also signified that his government was prepared 
to enter into a new discussion of the question at issue ; and a nego- 
tiation with these objects was accordingly commenced between 
Mr. Gallatin, the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at 
London, and Messrs. Addington and Huskisson, commissioners on 
the part of Great Britain. 

Before relating the particulars of this negotiation, it should be 
observed that the relative positions of the two parties, as to the 
occupancy and actual possession of the countries in question, had 
been materially changed since the conclusion of the former conven- 

* Dated severally January 16th, and May 15th, 1826. 



1826.] BRITISH IN qUIET POSSESSION OF THE COLU»IBIA. (yqrD 

tion between them. The union of the rival British companies, and 
the extension of the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada over 
the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, had already proved 
most advantageous to the Hudson's Bay Company, which had at the 
same time received the privilege of trading in that territory, to the 
exclusion of all other British subjects. Great efforts were made, 
and vast expenses were incurred, by this company, in its efforts to 
found settlements on the Columbia River, and to acquire influence 
over the natives of the surrounding country ; and so successful had 
been those efforts, that the citizens of the United States were 
obliged, not only to renounce all ideas of renewing their estab- 
lishments in that part of America, but even to withdraw their 
vessels from its coasts. Indeed, for more than ten years after the 
capture of Astoria by the British, scarcely a single American citizen 
was to be seen in those countries. Trading expeditions were sub- 
sequently made from Missouri to the head-waters of the Platte 
and the Colorado, within the limits of California, and one or two 
hundred hunters and trappers, from the United States, were gen- 
erally roving through that region ; but the Americans had no 
settlements of any kind, and their government exercised no juris- 
diction whatsoever west of the Rocky Mountains, 

Under such favorable circumstances, the Hudson's Bay Company 
could not fail to prosper. Its resources were no longer wasted in 
disputes with rivals ; its operations were conducted with despatch 
and certainty ; its posts were extended, and its means of communi- 
cation increased, under the assurance that the honor of the British 
government and nation was thereby more strongly interested in its 
behalf. The agents of the company were seen in every part of the 
continent, north and north-west of the United States and Canada, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hunting, trapping, and trading 
with the aborigines ; its boats were met on every stream and lake, 
conveying British goods into the interior, or furs to the great deposi- 
tories on each ocean, for shipment to England in British vessels ; 
and the utmost order and regularity were maintained throughout by 
the supremacy of British laws. Of the trading posts, many were 
fortified, and could be defended by their inmates — men inured to 
hardships and dangers — against all attacks which might be appre- 
hended ; and the whole vast expanse of territory above described, 
including the regions drained by the Columbia, was, in fact, occu- 
pied by British forces, and governed by British laws, though there 
44 



346 NEGOTIATION AT LONDON. [1826. 

was not a single British soldier — technically speaking — within 
its limits. 

Considering this state of things, and also the characters of the 
two nations engaged in the controversy and of their governments, 
it may readily be supposed that many and great obstacles would 
exist in the way of a definitive and amicable arrangement of the 
questions at issue, between the Americans ever solicitous with 
respect to territory which they have any reason to regard as their 
own, and the British with whom the acquisition and security of 
commercial advantages always form a paramount object of policy. 
To the difficulties occasioned by the conflict of such material 
interests, in this particular case, were added those arising from the 
pride of the parties, and their mutual jealousy, which seems ever to 
render them adverse to any settlement of a disputed point, even 
though it should be manifestly advantageous to them both. 

In the first conference,* the British commissioners declared that 
their government was still ready to abide by the proposition made 
to Mr. Rush, in 1824, for a line of separation between the territories 
of the two nations, drawn from the Rocky Mountains, along the 
49th parallel of latitude to the north-easternmost branch of the 
Columbia, and thence down that river to the sea ; giving to Great 
Britain all the territories north, and to the United States all south, 
of that line. Mr. Gallatin, in reply, agreeably to instructions from 
his government, repeated the offer made by himself and Mr. Rush, 
in 1818, for the adoption of the 49th parallel as the line of separa- 
tion from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, with the additional 
provisions, — that, if the said line should cross any of the branches 
of the Columbia at points from which they are navigable by boats 
to the main stream, the navigation of such branches, and of the 
main stream, should be perpetually free and common to the people 
of both nations — that the citizens or subjects of neither party 
should thenceforward make any settlements in the territories of the 
other ; but that all settlements already formed by the people of 
either nation within the limits of the other, might be occupied and 
used by them for ten years, and no longer, during which all the 
remaining provisions of the existing convention should continue in 
force. The British refused to accede to this or any other plan of 
partition which should deprive them of the northern bank of the 

* President Adams's message to Congress of December 28th, 1827, and the ac- 
companying documents. 



1826.] NEGOTIATION SUSPENDED. 347 

Columbia, and the right of navigating that river to and from the 
sea ; though they expressed their willingness to yield to the United 
States, in addition to what they first offered, a detached territory, 
extending, on the Pacific and the Strait of Fuca, from Bulfinch's 
Harbor to Hood's Canal, and to stipulate that no works should at 
any time be erected at the mouth or on the banks of the Columbia, 
calculated to impede the free navigation of that river, by either 
party. The Americans, however, being equally determined not to 
give up their title to any part of the country south of the 49th par- 
allel, all expectation of effecting a definitive disposition of the claims 
was abandoned. 

The plenipotentiaries then directed their attention to the sub- 
ject of a renewal of the arrangement for the use and occupancy 
of the territories in question by the people of both nations. With 
this view, the British proposed that the existing arrangement 
should be renewed according to the terms of the third article 
of the convention of October 20th, 1818, for fifteen years from 
the date of the expiration of that convention ; with the addi- 
tional provisions, however, that, during those fifteen years, neither 
power should assume or exercise any right of exclusive sovereignty 
or dominion over any part of the territory ; and that no settlement 
then made, or which might thereafter be made, by either nation 
in those countries, should ever be adduced in support of any 
claim to such sovereignty or dominion. This proposition was re- 
ceived by Mr. Gallatin for reference to his government, although 
he sav/ at once that the additional provisions were inadmissible ; and 
the negotiation was, in consequence, suspended for some months. 

During this first period of the negotiation, the claims and pre- 
tensions of the two nations respecting the countries in question, were 
developed and discussed more fully than on any previous occasion, 
not only in the conferences between the plenipotentiaries, but also 
in written statements,* formally presented on each side. As nearly 



* The statement of the British commissioners is presented entire in the Proofs and 
Illustrations, under the letter H, in order that no doubt may subsist as to the nature 
of the claims of Great Britain, and of the evidence and arguments by which they 
are supported. As a state paper, it will, perhaps, be found unworthy of the nation on 
whose part it was produced, and of at least one of the persons from whom it pro- 
ceeded ; many will regret to see appended to it the name of William Huskisson, and 
to learn that it received the approval of George Canning. 

The counter-statement of Mr. Gallatin, a most able document, is omitted only be- 
cause its insertion would have too much increased the bulk of the volume. 



348 CLAIMS OF THE UNITED STATES. [1826. 

every point touched by either of the parties has been already ex- 
amined minutely in the foregoing pages, it only remains now to 
recapitulate them, and to add some remarks, which could not 
have been conveniently introduced at an earlier period. 

Mr. Gallatin claimed for the United States the possession of the 
territory west of the Rocky Mountains, between the 42d and the 
49th parallels of latitude, on the grounds of — 

The acquisition by the United States of the titles of France 
through the Louisiana treaty, and the tides of Spain through the 
Florida treaty ; 

The discovery of the mouth of the Columbia, the first explora- 
tion of the countries through which that river flows, and the estab- 
lishment of the first posts and settlements in those countries by 
American citizens ; 

The virtual recognition of the title of the United States, by the 
British government, in the restitution, agreeably to the first article 
of the treaty of Ghent, of the post near the mouth of the Columbia, 
which had been taken during the war ; 

And, lastly, upon the ground of contiguity, which should give the 
United States a stronger right to those territories than could be 
advanced by any other power — a doctrine always maintained by 
Great Britain, from the period of her earliest attempts at coloniza- 
tion in America, as clearly proved by her charters, in which the 
whole breadth of the continent, between certain parallels of lati- 
tude, was granted to colonies established only at points on the 
borders of the Atlantic* 

Messrs. Huskisson and Addington, on the other hand, declared 
that Great Britain claims no exclusive sovereignty over any portion 
of the territory on the Pacific between the 42d and the 49th paral- 
lels of latitude ; her present claim, not in respect to any part, but 
to the whole, being limited to a right of joint occupancy, in com- 
mon with other states, leaving the right of exclusive dominion in 
abeyance. They then proceeded to examine the grounds of the 
claims of the United States, none of which they admitted to be 

* " If," says Mr. Gallatin, "some trading factories on the shores of Hudson's Bay- 
have been considered by Great Britain as giving an exclusive right of occupancy as 
far as the Rocky Mountains ; if the infant settlements on the more southern Atlantic 
shores justified a claim thence to the South Seas, and which was actually enforced to 
the Mississippi, — that of the millions already within reach of those seas cannot con- 
sistently be rejected." This argument, it may be added, has been since constantly 
increasing in force. 



1826.] CLAIMS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 349 

valid, except that acquired from Spain, through the Florida treaty, 
in 1819 ; and the right thus acquired they pronounced to be nothing 
more than the right secured to Spain, in common with Great Brit- 
ain, by the Nootka convention, in 1790, to trade and settle in any 
part of those countries, and to navigate their waters. Dismissing 
the claims of Spain, on the grounds of discovery, prior to 1790, 
as futile and visionary, and inferior to those of Great Britain on the 
same grounds, they maintained that all arguments and pretensions 
of either of those powers, whether resting on discovery or on any 
other consideration, were definitively set at rest by the Nootka 
convention, after the signature of which, the title was no longer to 
be traced in vague discoveries, several of them admitted to be 
apocryphal, but in the text and stipulations of that convention 
itself ; and that, as the Nootka convention applied to all parts of the 
north-west coast of America not occupied, in 1790, by either of 
the parties, it of course included any portion of Louisiana which 
might then have extended, on the Pacific, north of the northern- 
most Spanish settlement, and which could not, therefore, be claimed 
by the United States, in virtue of the treaty for the cession of Lou- 
isiana to that republic, in 1803. 

Having assumed this ground, it was scarcely necessary for the 
British plenipotentiaries to go further into the examination of the 
titles of the United States ; and they probably acted on this suppo- 
sition, as it is otherwise impossible to account for the gross mis- 
statements with regard to the discoveries of the Americans, the 
extravagant and unfounded assumptions, and the illogical deduc- 
tions, in the document presented by them to Mr. Gallatin, on the 
part of their government. Thus, with regard to the discovery of 
the mouth of the Columbia, they insisted that " Mr. Mcares, a lieu- 
tenant in the royal navy, who had been sent by the East India 
Company on a trading expedition to the north-west coasts of 
America," really effected that discovery four years before Gray is 
even pretended to have entered the river ; * though they indeed 
admitted that " Mr. Gray, finding himself in the bay formed by the 
discharge of the waters of the Columbia into the Pacific, was the 
first to ascertain that this hay formed the outlet of a great river, a 
discovery which had escaped Lieutenant Meares " when he entered 
the same bay ; but that, even supposing the priority of Gray's dis- 
covery to be proved, it was of no consequence in the case, as the 

* See p. 177. 



350 CLAIMS OF GREAT BPaTAIN. [1826. 

country in which it was made " falls within the provisions of the 
convention of 1790." They refused to allow that the claims of the 
United States are strengthened by the exploration of the country 
through which the Columbia flows, as performed in 1805-6 by 
Lewis and Clarke, " because, if not before, at least in the same and 
subsequent years," the agents of the North- West Company had 
established posts on the northern branch of the river, and were 
extending them down to its mouth, when they heard of the forma- 
tion of the American post at that place in 1811.* That the restora- 
tion of Astoria, in 1818, conveyed a virtual acknowledgment by 
Great Britain of the title of the United States to the country in 
which that post is situated, was also denied, on the ground that 
letters protesting against such title were, at the time of the restora- 
tion, addressed; by members of the British ministry, to British agents 
in the United States and on the Columbia.f It is needless to add 
any thing to what has been already said on these points, in order 
to prove the entire groundlessness of the assertions contained in the 
British statement with regard to them. 

The charters granted by the sovereigns of Great Britain and 
France, conveying to individuals or companies large tracts of terri- 
tory in America, were represented, by the British plenipotentiaries, 
as being nothing "more, in fact, than a cession to the grantee or 
grantees of whatever rights the grantor might suppose himself to 
possess, to the exclusion of other subjects of the same nation, — 
binding and restraining those only who were within the jurisdic- 
tion of the grantor, and of no force or validity against the subjects 
of other states, until recognized by treaty, and thereby becoming a 
part of international law." The erroneousness of these views 
is obvious, and was easily demonstrated by Mr. Gallatin, who 
showed, by reference to the history of British colonization and 
dominion in America, that the royal grantors of territories in that 
continent did consider their charters as binding on all, whether their 
own subjects or not, and with regard to countries first discovered 
and settled by people of other nations, whenever they were found 
to be within the limits thus indicated. These facts were cited, not 
in vindication of the justice of those grants, but merely to prove 
in what light they had been regarded by Great Britain : and, if the 
principle thus assumed by that power, and maintained from 1580 
to 1782, as relating to Atlantic colonies, were correct, she could not 

* See p. 297. t See p. 310. 



1826.] DETERMINATIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 351 

deny its application to the United States, now the owners of Lou- 
isiana.* 

The British plenipotentiaries were, however, clear and explicit as 
to the intentions of their government, which were declared, at the 
conclusion of their statement, in terms of moderation and forbear- 
ance truly edifying. Great Britain, they assert, claims, at present, 
nothing more than the rights of trade, navigation, and settlement, 
in the part of the world under consideration, agreeably to the pro- 
visions of the Nootka convention, the basis of the law of nations 
with regard to those territories and waters, under the protection of 
which many important British interests have grown up ; and she 
admits that the United States have tlie same rights, but none other, 
although they have been exercised only in one instance, and not 
at all since 1813. In the territory between the 42d and the 49th 
parallels of latitude, are many British posts and settlements, for the 
trade and supply of which, the free navigation of the Columbia, 
to and from the sea, is indispensable ; the United States possess 
not a single post or settlement of any kind in that whole region. 
Great Britain, nevertheless, for the sake of peace and good under- 
standing, agrees to submit to a definitive partition of that territory, 
giving to the United States the whole division south of the Co- 
lumbia, and a large tract containing an excellent harbor, north of 
that river ; and, the United States having declined to accede to this 
proposition, it only remains for Great Britain to maintain and up- 

* " This construction does not appear either to have been that intended at the time 
by the grantors, or to have governed the subsequent conduct of Great Britain. By 
excepting from the grants, as was generally the case, such lands as were already oc- 
cupied by the subjects of other civilized nations, it was clearly implied that no other 
exception was contemplated, and that the grants were intended to include all unoccu- 
pied lands within their respective boundaries, to the exclusion of all other persons or 
nations whatsoever. In point of fact, the whole country drained by the several rivers 
emptying into the Atlantic Ocean, the mouths of which were witliin those charters, 
has, from Hudson's Bay to Florida, and, it is believed, without exception, been occu- 
pied and held by virtue of those charters. Not only has this principle been fully 
confirmed, but it has been notoriously enforced much beyond the sources of the rivers 
on which the settlements were formed. The priority of the French settlements on 
the rivers flowing westwardly from the Alleghany Mountains into the Mississippi was 
altogether disregarded ; and the rights of the Atlantic colonies to extend beyond those 
mountains, as growing out of the contiguity of territory, and as asserted in the earliest 
charters, was effectually and successfully enforced." 

The American minister might also have cited the charters granted to the Virginia 
Company by King James I., in 1609 and 1611, in virtue of which, the Dutch settle- 
ments on the Hudson River, in a country first discovered, explored, and occupied, 
under the flag of the United Provinces, were, in 1664, — forty years after the disso- 
lution of the company, — during peace between the two nations, seized by British 
forces, as being included in the territories conceded to that company. 



352 BRITISH PROPOSITIONS REJECTED. [1827. 

hold the quahfied rights which she now possesses over the whole of 
the territory in question. " To the interests which British industry 
and enterprise have created Great Britain owes protection. That 
protection will be given, both as regards settlement and freedom 
of trade and navigation, with every attention not to infringe the 
coordinate rights of the United States ; it being the earnest desire 
of the British government, so long as the joint occupancy con- 
tinues, to regulate its own obligations by the same rule which 
governs the obligations of any other occupying party." Thus, in 
1826, the British government based its claims, with regard to the 
territories west of the Rocky Mountains, entirely on the Nootka 
convention of 1790, and the acts of occupation by its subjects 
under that agreement ; the abrogation of which, by the war between 
the parties, in 1796, — ten years before a single spot in those territo- 
ries had been occupied by a British subject, — has been already so 
fully demonstrated,* that any further observations would be super- 
fluous. 

The proposition of the British plenipotentiaries, with regard to the 
renewal of the existing arrangement for ten years, was rejected by 
the president of the United States,! on the grounds — that, so far as 
it would tend to prevent the Americans from exercising exclusive 
sovereignty at the mouth of the Columbia River, it would be con- 
trary to their rights, as acknowledged by the treaty of Ghent, and 
by the restitution of the place agreeably to that treaty ; — that the 
proposed additional provisions do not define, but leave open to 
disputation, the acts which might be deemed an exercise of exclu- 
sive sovereignty ; — and that, from the nature of the institutions of 
the United States, their rights in the territory in question must be 
protected, and their citizens must be secured in their lawful pursuits, 
by some species of government, different from that which it has 
been, or may be, the pleasure of Great Britain to establish there. 
Mr. Gallatin, on the 24th of May, 1827, communicated to the 
British commissioners the fact of the rejection of their proposition, 
and the reasons for it, declaring, at the same time, formally, in 
obedience to special instructions, that his government did not hold 
itself bound hereafter in consequence of any proposal which it had 
made for a line of separation between the territories of the two 
nations beyond the .Rocky Mountains ; but woidd consider itself at 
liberty to contend for the full extent of the claims of the United States. 

* See the examinations of this question, at pp. 213, 257, and 318. 

t Letter of February 24th, 1827, from the Hon. Henry Clay to Mr. Gallatin. 



1827.] NEGOTIATION AT LONDON RESUMED. 353 

The British plenipotentiaries, having entered on the protocol of 
the conferences a declaration with regard to the previous claims 
and propositions of their government, similar to that made on the 
part of the United States by Mr. Gallatin, then intimated their 
readiness to agree to a simple renewal of the terms of the existing 
arrangement, for ten years from the date of the expiration of the 
convention of 1818; provided, however, that, in so doing, they 
should append to the new convention, in some way, a declara- 
tion of what they considered to be its true intent, namely, — that 
hoth parties loerc restricted, during its continuance in force, from 
exercising, or assuming to themselves the right to exercise, any exclu- 
sive sovereignty or jurisdiction over the territories mentioned in the 
agreement. The objections to this arrangement were nearly as 
strong as to that which had already been proposed and refused ; 
Mr. Gallatin, however, desired to know what species of acts the 
British would consider as an exercise of exclusive sovereignty or 
jurisdiction. In reply, he was informed tiiat Great Britain would 
not complain of the extension, over tiie regions west of the Rocky 
]\Iountains, of the jurisdiction of any territory, having for its eastern 
boundary a line within the acknowledged boundaries of the United 
States ; provided — that no custom-house should be erected, nor 
any duties or charges on tonnage, merchandise, or commerce, be 
raised, by either party, in the country west of the Rocky Mountains 
— that the citizens or subjects of the two powers residing in or 
resorting to those countries, should be amenable only to the juris- 
diction of their own nation respectively — and that no military 
post should be established by either party in those countries ; or, 
at least, no such post as would command the navigation of the 
Columbia or any of its branches. 

To the first of these conditions, Mr. Gallatin saw no strong reason 
to object. With regard to the second, he considered it indispensable 
that the respective jurisdiction of the courts of justice should be 
determined by positive compact, as it would scarcely be possible 
otherwise to prevent collisions ; and upon the third condition, he 
believed it would be very difficult to arrive at a correct under- 
standing, as the British government wouki not admit the posts of 
the Hu'tson's Bay Company to be military establishments. On all 
these points, the two governments might afterwards negotiate ; 
but the American minister refused to assent to any declaration or 
explanation whatsoever respecting the terms under which the terri- 
tories in question were to remain open to the people of the two 
45 



354 RENEWAL OF THE CONVENTION OF 1818. [1827. 

countries ; and the British were equally resolved not to agree to a 
renewal of the engagement for a fixed period of time, without such 
a declaration. 

Finally, on the 6th of August, 1827, a convention was signed by 
the plenipotentiaries, to the effect, that the provisions of the third 
article of the convention of October 20th, 1818, — rendering all 
the territories claimed by Great Britain or hy the United States, 
west of the Rocky Mountains, free and open to the citizens or 
subjects of both nations for ten years, — should be further extended 
for an indefinite period ; either party being, however, at liberty to 
annul and abrogate the agreement, on giving a year's notice of its 
intention to the other.* This convention was submitted to the 
Senate of the United States in the following winter, and, having 
been approved by that body, it was immediately ratified. 

In relating the circumstances connected with the adoption of the 
convention of October, 1818, the opinion was expressed, that it was 
perhaps the most wise, as well as most just, arrangement which 
could then have been made ; and this renewal of the arrangement 
for an indefinite period, leaving each of the parties at liberty to 
abrogate it, after a reasonable notice to the other, appears to merit 
the same commendation. No unworthy concession was made, 
no loss of dignity or right was sustained, on either side ; and to 
break the amicable and mutually profitable relations, then subsisting 
between the two countries, on a question oL mere title to the pos- 
session of territories from which neither could derive any immediate 
benefit of consequence, would have been impolitic and unrighteous. 
The advantages of the convention were, in 1827, as in 1818, nearly 
equal to both nations ; but the difference was, on the whole, in 
favor of the United States. The British might, indeed, derive more 
profit from the fur trade as carried on by their organized Hudson's 
Bay Company, than the Americans could expect to obtain by the 
individual efforts of their citizens ; but the value of that trade is 
much less than is generally supposed : no settlements could be 
formed in the territory beyond the Rocky Mountains, by which it 
could acquire a population, while the arrangement subsisted ; and 
the facilities for occupying the territory at a future period, when its 
occupation by the United States should become expedient, would 
undoubtedly have increased in a far greater ratio on their part than 
on that of Great Britain. For the difficulties which must arise 

" Proofs and Illustrations, letter I, No. 6. 



1829.] PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS. 355 

whenever the convention is abrogated, even agreeably to the man- 
ner therein stipulated, it became, of course, the duty of each 
government to provide in time. 

In the session of Congress following that in which the new con- 
vention with Great Britain had been approved, the subject of the 
occupation of the mouth of the Columbia River was again discussed ; 
and, after a long series of debates, in which the most eminent mem- 
bers of the House of Representatives took part, a bill was reported, 
whereby the president was authorized to cause the territory west 
of the Rocky Mountains to be explored, and forts and garrisons to 
be established in any proper places, between the parallels of 42 
degrees and 54 degrees 40 minutes ; and also to extend the juris- 
diction of the United States over those countries, as regards citizens 
of the Union. The adoption of these measures was urged, on the 
ground that it was the duty of the government to make good, by 
occupation, the right of the United States, which was pronounced 
unquestionable, lest, by neglect, the country should fall irrevocably 
into the possession of another power, which had unjustly contested 
that right : and, as inducements to pursue this course, pictures most 
flattering were presented of the soil, climate, and productions, of 
the regions watered by the Columbia, and of the various advantages 
which would be secured to the citizens of the Union engaged in the 
trade of the Pacific Ocean, by the settlement of those coasts. The 
bill was opposed, as infringing the convention recently concluded 
with Great Britain ; in addition to which, it was contended, that, 
were all opposition on the part of that or other ])owers removed, 
and the right of the United States established and universally 
recognized, the occupation of the countries in question in the 
manner proposed, would be useless, from their extreme barrenness, 
from the dangers to navigation presented by their coasts, and from 
the difficulty of communicating with them either by sea or by land ; 
and such occupation mii^ht be injurious, as citizens of the United 
States would be thus induced to settle in those countries, and their 
government would find itself bound to protect and maintain them, 
at great expense, without a commensurate advancement of the pub- 
lic good. In the course of the debates, several amendments were 
proposed to the bill, but it was finally rejected on the 9th of 
January, 1829; and, for many years afterwards, very little atten- 
tion was bestowed, by any branch of the government of the 
United States, to matters connected with the territories west of 
the Rocky Mountains. 



356 



CHAPTER XVII. 

1823 TO 1844 



Few Citizens of the United States in the Countries west of the Rocky Mountains 
between 1813 and 1823 — Trading Expeditions of Ashley, Sublette, Smith, Pilcher, 
Pattie, Bonneville, and Wyeth — Missionaries from the United States form Estab- 
lishments on the Columbia — First Printing Press set up in Oregon — Opposi- 
tion of the Hudson's Bay Company to the Americans; how exerted — Contro- 
versy between the United States and Russia — Dispute between the Hudson's 
Bay and the Russian American Companies; how terminated — California; Cap- 
ture of Monterey by Commodore Jones — The Sandwich Islands; Proceedings of 
the Missionaries; Expulsion of the Catholic Priests, and their Reinstatement by a 
French Force — The Sandwich Islands temporarily occupied by the British. 



It has already been said, that, during the ten years immediately 
following the dissolution of the Pacific Fur Company, and the 
seizure of its establishments on the Columbia by the British, few, 
if any, citizens of the United States entered the countries west 
of the Rocky Mountains ; although, within that period, the facilities 
for communication between those countries and the settled portions 
of the American Union had been increased by the introduction of 
steam vessels on the Mississippi and its tributary rivers. Nearly 
all the trade of the regions of the Upper Mississippi and the 
Missouri was then carried on by the old North American Fur 
Company, at the head of which Mr. Astor still remained ; and by 
another association, called the Columbia Fur Company, formed in 
1822, composed principally of persons who had been in the service 
of the North-West Company, and were dissatisfied with their new 
masters. The Columbia Company established several posts on the 
upper waters of the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Yellowstone, 
which were, however, transferred to the North American Company, 
on the junction of the two bodies in 1826. The Americans had also 
begun to trade with the northernmost provinces of Mexico, before 
the overthrow of the Spanish authority in that country ; after which 
event, large caravans passed regularly, in each summer, between 
St. Louis and Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, on the head- 
waters of the River Bravo del Norte. 



1826.] TRADING EXPEDITIONS OF ASHLEY. 357 

The first attempt to reestablish commercial communications 
between the United States and the territories west of the Rocky 
Mountains, was made by W. H. Ashley, of St. Louis, who had been, 
for some time previous, engaged in the fur trade of the Missouri and 
Yellowstone countries. He quitted the state of Missouri in the 
spring of 1823, at the head of a large party of men, with horses 
carrying merchandise and baggage, and proceeded up the Platte 
River, to the sources of its northern branch, called the Sweet Water, 
which had not been previously explored. These sources were found 
to be situated in a remarkable valley, or cleft, in the Rocky Moun- 
tains, in the latitude of 42 degrees 20 minutes ; and immediately 
beyond them were discovered those of another stream, flowing 
south-westward, called by the Indians SidsJcadee, and by the 
Americans Green River, which proved to be one of the head- 
waters of the Colorado of California. In the country about these 
streams, which had not then been frequented by the British traders, 
Mr. Ashley passed the summer, with his men, employed in trap- 
ping, and in bartering goods for skins with the natives ; and, before 
the end of the year, he brought back to St. Louis a large and valu- 
able stock of furs. 

In 1824, Mr. Ashley made another expedition up the Platte, 
and through the cleft in the mountains, which has since been gen- 
erally called the Southern Pass ; and then, advancing farther west, 
he reached a great collection of salt water called the Utah Lake, 
(probably the Lake Timpanogos, or Lake Tegayo, of the old Spanish 
maps,) which lies imbosomed among lofty mountains, between the 
40th and the 42d parallels of latitude. Near this lake, on the 
south-east, he found another and smaller one, to which he gave his 
own name ; and there he built a fort, or trading post, in which he left 
about a hundred men, when he returned to Missouri in the autumn. 
Two years afterwards, a six-pound cannon was drawn from Mis- 
souri to this fort, a distance of more than twelve hundred miles ; 
and, in 1828, many wagons, heavily laden, performed the same 
journey. 

During the three years between 1824 and 1827, the men left by 
Mr. Ashley in the country beyond the Rocky Mountains collected 
and sent to St. Louis furs to the value of more than one hundred 
and eighty thousand dollars ; this enterprising man then retired from 
the trade, and sold all his interests and establishments to the Rocky 
Mountain Company, at the head of which were Messrs. Smith, 
Jackson, and Sublette, persons not less energetic and determined. 



358 TRADING EXPEDITION OF PILCHER. [1828. 

These traders carried on for*many years an extensive and profit- 
able business, in the course of which they traversed every part 
of the country about the southern branch of the Columbia, and 
nearly the whole of continental California. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, they made no astronomical observations, and, being unac- 
quainted with any branch of physical science, very little information 
has been derived through their means. Smith, after twice crossing 
the continent to the Pacific, was murdered, in the summer of 1829, 
by the Indians north-west of the Utah Lake. 

These active proceedings of the Missouri fur traders roused 
the spirit of the North American Company, which also extended its 
operations beyond the Rocky Mountains, though no establishments 
were formed by its agents in those countries ; and many expeditions 
were made, in the same direction, by independent parties, of whose 
adventures, narratives, more or less exact and interesting, have been 
published. In 1827, Mr. Pilcher went from Council Bluffs, on the 
Missouri, with forty-five men, and more than a hundred horses ; and, 
having crossed the great dividing chain of mountains by the South- 
ern Pass, he spent the winter on the Colorado. In the following 
year, he proceeded to tiie Lewis River, and thence, northwardly, 
along the foot of the Rocky Mountains, on their western side, to 
the Flathead Lake, near the 47th degree of latitude, which he 
describes as a beautiful sheet of water, formed by the expansion of 
the Clarke River, in a rich and extensive valley, surrounded by high 
mountains. There he remained until the spring of 1829, when 
he descended the Clarke to Fort Colville, an estabhshment then 
recently formed by the Hudson's Bay Company, on the northern 
branch of the Columbia, at its falls ; and thence he returned to the 
United States, through the long and circuitous route of the Upper 
Columbia, the Athabasca, the Assinaboin, Red River, and the Upper 
Missouri. The countries thus traversed by Mr. Pilcher have all 
become comparatively well known from the accounts of subsequent 
travellers ; but very little information had been given to the world 
respecting them before the publication of his concise narrative.* 
The account of the rambles of J. O. Pattie, a Missouri fur trader, 
through New Mexico, Chihuahua, Sonora, and California, published 
in 1832, throws some light on the geography of parts of those 
countries of which little can as yet be learned from any other 
source. During his peregrinations, Pattie several times crossed the 
great dividing chain of mountains between New Mexico on the 

* Published with President Jackson's message to Congress, January 23d, 1829. 



1834.] PLANS OF WYETH FOR THE OREGON TRADE. 359 

east, and Sonora and California on ^le west, and descended and 
ascended the Colorado, and its principal tributaries, which he de- 
scribes as being navigable by boats for considerable distances. He 
also made trips across Sonora to the Californian Gulf, and across 
California to the Pacific, as well as through the ISIexican provinces 
on the coasts of that ocean, where he suffered imprisonment and 
many other hardships from the tyranny of the authorities. 

In 1832, Captain Bonneville, of the army of the United States, 
while on furlough, led a band of more than a hundred men, with 
twenty wagons, and many horses and mules, carrying merchandise 
from Missouri to the countries of the Colorado and the Columbia, 
in which he passed more than two years, engaged in hunting, trap- 
ping, and trading.* 

About the same time. Captain Wyeth, of Massachusetts, en- 
deavored to establish a regular system of commercial intercourse 
between the states of the Union and the countries of the Columbia, 
to which latter the general name of OREGON tlien began to be 
universally applied in the United States. His plan, like that devised 
by Mr. Astor in 1810, was to send manufactured goods to the 
Pacific countries, and from thence to transport to the United States, 
and even to China, not only furs, but also the salmon which abound 
in the rivers of North- Western America. With these objects, he 
made two expeditions over land to the Columbia, in the latter of 
which he founded a trading post, called Fort Hall, on the south 
side of the Snake or Lewis branch of that river, at the entrance of 
the Portneuf, about a hundred miles north of the Utah Lake ; and 
he then established another post, principally for fishing purposes, on 
Wappatoo Island, near the conlluence of the Willamet River witii 
the Columbia, a hundred miles above the mouth of the latter. 
This scheme, however, failed entirely. The Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany's agents immediately took the alarm, and founded a counter 
establishment, called Fort Boise, at the entrance of the Boise or 
Read's River into the Lewis, some distance below Fort Hall, where 
they offered goods to the Indians at prices much lower than those 
which the Americans could afford to take ; and Wyeth, being thus 
driven out of the market, was forced to compromise with his op- 
ponents, by selling his fort to them, and engaging to desist from the 

* Tlio narrative of this expedition, written from the notes of Captain Bonneville, 
by Washington Irving, in the vein, half serious, lialf jocose, of Fray Agapida's 
Chronicle, contains some curious, though generally overcharged, pictures of lite 
among the hunters, trappers, traders, Indians, and grisly bears, of the Rocky Moun- 
tains ; but it adds very little to our knowledge of the geography of those -°"-;nns. 



360 AMERICAN TRADERS IN CALIFORNIA. [1834. 

fur trade. Meanwhile, a b^j^, which he had despatched from 
Boston, with a cargo of goods, arrived at Wappatoo Island, where 
she, after some further arrangements with the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, took in a cargo of salted salmon, for the United States. 
She reached Boston in safety ; but the results of her voyage were 
not such as to encourage perseverance in the enterprise, which was 
thereupon abandoned.* 

The American traders, being excluded by these and other means 
from the Columbia countries, confined themselves almost entirely to 
the regions about the head-waters of the Colorado and the Utah 
Lake, where they formed one or two small establishments ; though 
they sometimes extended their rambles westward to the Sacramento, 
the Bay of San Francisco, and Monterey, where they were viewed 
with dislike and mistrust by the Mexican authorities. The number 
of citizens of the United States thus employed in the country west 
of the Rocky Mountains seldom, if ever, exceeded two hundred : 
during the greater part of the year, they roved through the wilds, 
in search of furs, which they carried, in the summer, to certain 
places of rendezvous on the Colorado, or on the Lewis, and there 
disposed of them to the traders from Missouri ; the whole business 
being conducted by barter, and without the use of money, though 
each article bore a nominal value, expressed in dollars and cents, 
very different from that assigned to it in the states of the Union.f 

About the time of Wyeth's expeditions also took place the ear- 
liest emigrations from the United States to the territories of the 
Columbia, for the purpose of settlement, and without any special 
commercial objects. 

The first of these colonies was founded, in 1834, in the valley of 

* Captain Wyeth's expeditions, though unprofitable to himself, have been rendered 
advantageous to the world at large; for his short memoir on the regions which he 
visited, printed with the report of the committee of the House of Representatives on 
the Oregon territory, in February, 1839, affords more exact and useful information, as 
to their general geography, climate, soil, and agricultural and commercial. capabilities, 
than any other work yet published. Wyeth's movements are also related incidentally 
in the account of Bonneville's adventures, and in the interesting Narrative of a Jour- 
ney across the Rocky Mountains, &c., by J. K. Townsend, a naturalist of Philadelphia, 
published in 1839. 

t Thus, among the prices current at the rendezvous on Green River, in the 
summer of 1838, we find whisky at three dollars per pint, gunpowder at six dollars 
per pint, tobacco at five dollars per poimd, dogs (for food) at fifteen dollars each, &c. 
Twenty dollars were frequently expended in rum and sugar, for a night's carouse, by 
two or three traders, after the conclusion of a bargain. Under such circumstances, 
it may bo supposed that the price of beaver and muskrat skins was proportionally 
raised ; and that a package, purchased for a hundred dollars on Green River, may have 
been afterwards sold with profit at St. Louis for twenty. 



1836.] AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS IN OREGON. 361 

the Willamet River, in which a few. retired servants of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company had already estabhshed themselves, by per- 
mission of that body, and were employed principally in herding 
cattle. The Americans, who settled there, were mostly Methodists, 
under the direction of ministers of their sect ; and colonies of 
Presbyterians or Congregational ists were afterwards planted in the 
Walla- Walla and Spokan countries. In all these places, schools 
for the education of the natives were opened, and, in 1839, a 
printing press was set up at Walla- Walla, on which were struck 
off the first sheets ever printed on the Pacific side of America 
north of Mexico. The Jesuits of St. Louis then engaged in the 
labor of converting the Indians, in which they appear, from their 
own accounts, to have met with extraordinary success ; but, 
according to the customs of that order, they did not attempt to 
form any settlements.* 

The attention of the government of the United States had 
been, in the mean time, directed to the north-west coasts, es- 
pecially by the recent refusal of the Russians to allow Amer- 
ican vessels to trade on the unoccupied parts north of the lat- 
itude of 54 degrees 40 minutes. This refusal was based on 

* The first body of American emigrants went by sea, under the direction of 
Messrs. Lee and Shepherd, Methodist ministers, who had already visited those 
countries ; and several other parties of persons of the same sect have since estab- 
lisiied themselves in the Willamet valley, and near the falls of the great river. 

The pioneer of the other Protestant sects was Mr. Samuel Parker, whose journal 
of his tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, though highly interesting and instructive, 
would have been much more so, had he confined himself to the results of his own 
experience, and not wandered into the regions of history, diplomacy, and cosmog- 
ony, in all of which he is evidently a stranger. Upon the recommendations of Mr. 
Parker, Messrs. Spaulding, Gray, and Whitman, were sent out by tlie Board of Mis- 
sions, in 1836 ; and they were followed, in 1838, by Messrs. Walker, Eels, and Smith, 
all of whom, with their wives, liave been since assiduously engaged in their benevo- 
lent pursuits among the Indians, chiefly those of the middle regions of Oregon. See 
the History of the American Board of Commissioners, published at Boston. 

Some accounts of the stale of these settlements in 1837 may be found in the report 
of Mr. W. Slacuni, who was commissioned by the American government to visit the 
Columbia countries in lliat year : this paper, however, which was published by order 
of the Senate of the United States in 1838, is so vague and inexact in its details, that 
it is, in most cases, calculated ratlier to confuse and mislead than to direct. 

The Jesuits De Smct, Mengarini, Point, and others, have, since 1840, made several 
missionary tours through the Columbia countries, in the course of which they 
baptized some thousands of Indians ; they also erected a church at a place near 
the KuUerspelm Lake, on Clarke's River, where the Blessed Virgin appeared in 
person to a little Indian boy, "whose youth, piety, and sincerity," say the good 
fathers, "joined to the nature of the fact which he related, forbade us to doubt 
the truth of his statement." — De SmeVs Letters, published at Philadelphia, in 1843, 
p. 192. 

46 



362 PROCEEDINGS OF THE RUSSIANS. [1838. 

the fact that the period of ten years, fixed by the fourth article of 
the convention of 1824 between the two nations, during which the 
vessels of both parties might frequent the bays, creeks, harbors, and 
other interior waters on the north-west coast, had expired : and 
the Russian government had chosen to consider that article as the 
only limitation of its right to exclude American vessels from all 
parts of the division of the coast on which the United States, by 
the convention, engaged to form no establishments ; disregarding 
entirely the first article of the same agreement, by which all unoc- 
cupied places on the north-west coast were declared free and open 
to the citizens or subjects of both nations. The government of the 
United States immediately protested against this exclusion ; and 
their plenipotentiaries at St. Petersburg have been instructed to 
demand its revocation.* To the reasons offered in support of 

* See President Van Buren's message to Congress of December 3d, 1838, and the 
accompanying documents. The letters of Messrs. Wilkins and Dallas, successively 
plenipotentiaries of the United States at St. Petersburg, relating the particulars of 
their negotiations with the Russian minister, will be found very interesting, from the 
luminous views of national rights presented in them. The instructions of Mr. For- 
syth, the American secretary of state, to Mr. Dallas, dated November 3d, 1837, are 
also especially worthy of attention. After repeating the cardinal rule as to the con-' 
struction of instruments, — that they should be so construed, if possible, as that every 
part may stand, — he proceeds to show that the fourth article of the convention of 
April, 1824, was to be understood as giving "permission to enter interior bays, &c., 
at the mouth of which there might be establishments, or the shores of wliich might 
be in part, but not wholly, occupied by such establishments ; thus providing for a 
case which would otherwise admit of doubt, as it would be questionable whether the 
bays, &c., described in it, belonged to the^rs^ or the second article. In no sense," 
continues Mr. Forsyth, " can it be understood as implying an acknowledgment, on 
the part of the United States, of the right of Russia to the possession of the coast 
above the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes north ; but it should be taken in con- 
nection with the other articles, which have, in fact, no reference whatever to the 
question of the right of possession of the unoccupied parts of the coast. In a spirit 
of compromise, and to prevent future collisions or difficulties, it was agreed that 
no new establishments should be formed by the respective parties north or south of 
a certain parallel of latitude, after the conclusion of the agreement; but the question 
of the right of possession beyond the existing establishments, as it subsisted previous 
to, or at the time of, the conclusion of the convention, was left untouched. The 
United States, in agreeing not to form new establishments north of the latitude of 
54 degrees and 40 minutes, made no acknowledgment of the right of Russia to the 
possession of the territory above that line. If such admission had been made, Russia, 
by the same construction of the article referred to, must have acknowledged the 
right of the United Slates to the territory south of the line. But that Russia did not 
so understand the article, is conclusively proved by her having entered into a similar 
agreement in a subsequent treaty (1625) with Great Britain, and having, in fact, 
acknowledged in that instrument the right of possession of the same territory by 
Great Britain. The United States can only be considered as acknowledging the 
right of Russia to acquire, by actual occupation, a just claim to unoccupied lands 
above the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes north ; and even this is a mere matter 



1833.] PROCEEDINns OF THE RUSSIANS. 363 

this demand, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Count Nessel- 
rode, did not attempt to ofter any reply, contenting himself simply 
with declaring that his sovereign was not inclined to renew the 
fourth article, as it afforded the Americans the opportunity of fur- 
nishing the natives on the coasts with spirituous liquors and fire-arms ; 
though no case was adduced in support of that assertion. Thus 
the matter rests ; the American traders being excluded from visiting 
any of the coasts of the Pacilic north of the parallel of 54 degrees 
40 minutes, on the ground that those coasts are acknowledged by 
the United States to belong to Russia, whilst the latter power, by 
its treaty with Great Britain in 1825, directly denies any rights, 
on the part of the United States, to the coasts south of that parallel. 
The Russian government also refused the same privilege to British 
vessels after 1835, and moreover opposed by force the exercise of 
another privilege claimed by the British under the treaty of 1825, 
namely, that of navigating the rivers flowing from the interior of 
the continent to the Pacific across the line of boundary therein 
established. In 1834, the Hudson's Bay Company fitted out an 
expedition for the purpose of establishing a trading post on the large 
river Stikine, which enters the channel named by Vancouver Prince 
Frederick^ Sound, between the main land and one of the islands 
of the north-west archipelago claimed by Russia, in the latitude of 
5G degrees 50 minutes. Baron Wrangel, the Russian governor- 
general, having, however, been informed of the project, erected a 
block-house and stationed a sloop of war at the mouth of the 
Stikine ; and, on the appearance of the vessel bringing the men 
and materials for the contemplated establishment, the British were 
warned not to attempt to pass into the river, and were forced to 
return to the south. AH appeals to the treaty were ineffectual, and 
the Hudson's Bay Company was obliged to desist from the prose- 
cution of the plan, after having, as asserted on its part, spent more 
than twenty thousand pounds in fitting out the expedition. 

of inference, as the convention of 1824 contains nothing more than a negation of the 
right of the United States to occupy new points within that limit. Admitting that 
this inference was in contemplation of the parties to the convention, it cannot follow 
tliat the United States ever intended to abandon the just right, acknowledged by the 
first article to belong to them, under the law of nations ; that is, to frequent any part of 
the unoccupied coast of North America, for the purpose of fishing or trading with the 
natives. All that the convention admits is, an inference of the right of Russia to 
acquire possession by settlement north of 54 degrees and 40 minutes north ; and, 
until that possession is taken, the first article of the convention acknowledges the 
right of the United States to fish and trade, as prior to its negotiation." 



364 AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE BRITISH AND RUSSIANS. [1840. 

The British government immediately demanded satisfaction, from 
that of Russia, for this infraction of the treaty ; and, after some 
time spent in negotiation between the two powers, and between 
the two companies, it was agreed that the part of the continental 
coast extending from the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, north- 
ward, to Cape Spenser, near the 58th degree, which was assigned 
to Russia by the treaty of 1825, should be leased, by the Russian 
American Company, to the Hudson's Bay Company, for ten years 
from the 1st of June, 1840, at an annual rent, to be paid in furs. 
The difficulty was thus ended, to the advantage of all parties ; the 
British gaining access to a long line of coast, without which the 
adjoining territories of the interior would have been useless, while 
the Russians derive a much greater amount from the rent than they 
could have otherwise drawn from the coast. 

The charter of the Russian American Company was renewed, in 
1839, for twenty years, without any modifications worthy of note. 
The company was then in a prosperous condition ; its operations 
were daily extending, and the value of its stock was constantly 
increasing. 

The license, granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1821, to 
trade, in exclusion of all other British subjects, in the countries 
owned or claimed by Great Britain, north and west of Canada and 
the United States, expired in 1840; but another license, containing 
some new and important provisions, had been accorded by the 
government, on the 30th of May, 1838.* Thus the company was 
bound, under heavy penalties, to enforce the due execution of crim- 
inal processes, by the officers and other persons legally empowered, 
in all its territories, and to make and submit to the government 
such rules and regulations, for the trade with the Indians, as should 
be effectual to promote their moral and religious improvement, and 
especially to prevent the sale and distribution of spirituous liquors 
among them. It is moreover declared, in the grant, that nothing 
therein contained should authorize the company to claim the right 
of trade in any part of America, to the prejudice or exclusion of 
the people of " any foreign states " who may be entitled to trade 
there, in virtue of conventions between such states and Great 
Britain ; and the government reserves to itself the right to establish 
any colony or province within the territories included in the grant, 
or to annex any portion of those territories to any existing colony 
or province, and to apply to such colony any form of civil govern- 

* See both the licenses in the Proofs and llhistrations, letter I. 



1822.] CALIFORNIA SUBJECT TO MEXICO. 365 

ment, independent of the Hudson's Bay Company, which might be 
deemed proper. Whether this last provision was introduced with 
some special and immediate object, or with a view to future contin- 
gencies, no means have as yet been afforded for determining. The 
British government, however, insisted strongly on retaining the 
above-mentioned privileges ; and it is most probable that the 
Columbia countries were in view at the time, as the remainder 
of the territory included in the grant, and not possessed by the 
company in virtue of the charter of 1669, is of little value in 
any way. 

In California, few events worthy of note occurred during the 
whole period of fifty years, from the first establishment of Spanish 
colonies and garrisons on the west coasts of that country, to the 
termination of the revolutionary struggle between Spain and Mex- 
ico. Before the commencement of the disturbances, the missions 
were, to a certain extent, fostered by the Spanish government, and 
supplies of money and goods were sent to them, with regularity, 
from Acapulco and San Bias ; but, after the revolution broke out, 
these remittances were reduced, the missionaries lost their influence 
over the natives, and the establishments fell into decay. Upon the 
overthrow of the Spanish power, in 1822, California was divided 
politically into two territories, of which the peninsula formed one, 
called Lower CaJifornia ; the other, or Upper California, embracing 
the whole of the continental portion. By the constitution of 1824, 
each of these territories became entitled to send one member to the 
National Congress ; and, by subsequent decrees, all the adult Indians, 
who could be considered as civilized or capable of reasoning, (gejite 
de razon,) were freed from submission to their former pastors, had 
lands assigned to them, and were declared citizens of the republic. 
These seeming boons were, however, accompanied by the with- 
drawal of nearly all the allowances previously made for the estab- 
lishments, and by the imposition of taxes and duties on all imports, 
including those from Mexico. The authority of the missionaries 
thus dwindled away, and those who had been long in the country 
either returned to Mexico or Spain, or escaped to other lands : the 
cultivation of the mission farms was abandoned, and the Indians, 
freed from restraint, relapsed into barbarism, or sunk into the lowest 
state of indolence and vice. 

Whilst the number of civilized Indians in California was by these 
measures diminished, the white population was at the same time 
somewhat increased. Immediately after, and indeed before, the 



366 CALIFORNIA SUBJECT TO MEXICO. [1828. 

overthrow of the Spanish authority in that country, its ports became 
the resort of foreigners, especially of the whalers and traders of 
the United States, who offered coarse manufactured articles and 
groceries in exchange for provisions, and for the hides and tallow 
of the wild cattle abounding in the country. This trade was at 
first carried on in the same irregular manner as the fur trade with 
the Indians on the coasts farther north ; as it increased, however, 
it became more systematized, and mercantile houses were estab- 
lished in the principal ports. The majority of the merchants were 
foreigners, English, French, or Americans : in their train came shop 
and tavern-keepers, and artisans, from various countries ; and to 
these were added deserting seamen and stragglers from the Missouri 
and the Columbia. 

This state of things was by no means satisfactory to the Mexican 
government ; and orders were given to the commandant-general of 
Upper California to enforce the laws prohibiting foreigners from 
entering or residing in the Mexican territories without special per- 
mission from the authorities. Agreeably to these orders, a number 
of American citizens were, in 1828, seized at San Diego, and kept 
in confinement until 1830, when an insurrection broke out, headed 
by a General Solis, wiiich they were instrumental in subduing; and, 
in consideration of their services, they were allowed to quit the 
country. The trading expeditions of Ashley and Smith, of which 
accounts have been already presented, at the same time gave great 
uneasiness to the Mexican government, and were made the subjects 
of formal complaints to that of the United States. 

These circumstances, with others of the same nature then occur- 
ring in Texas, served to delay the conclusion of treaties of limits, 
and of amity, commerce, and navigation, between the United States 
and Mexico ; which were, however, at length signed and ratified, 
so as to become effective in 1832. By the treaty of limits, the line 
of boundary from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific, which was 
settled between the United States and Spain in 1819, was adopted 
as separating the territories of the United States on the north from 
those of Mexico on the south ; and the latter power accordingly 
claims as its own the whole territory west of the great dividing 
chain of mountains, as far north as the 42d parallel of latitude. 

The Mexican government likewise endeavored to prevent the 
evils anticipated from the presence of so many foreigners in Cali- 
fornia, by founding new colonies of its own citizens in that country. 
Criminals were to be transported thither ; but although many were 



1837.] , REVOLUTION TN CALIFORNIA. 367 

thus sentenced, few, if any, ever reached the place of their desti- 
nation. A number of persons, of various trades and professions, 
were also sent out from Mexico in 1834, to be located on the lands 
of the missions in CaUfornia ; but, ere they reached those places, 
the administration by which the scheme was devised, had been 
overthrown, and the new authorities, entertaining different views, 
ordered the settlers to he driven back to their native land. 

These new authorities — that is to say. General Santa Anna and 
his partisans — determined to remodel the constitution, under which 
Mexico had been governed, as a federal republic, since 1824. What 
other form was to have been introduced in its stead, is not known ; 
for, in the spring of 1836, at the moment when the change was 
about to be made, Santa Anna was defeated and taken prisoner by 
the Texans at San Jacinto, Those who succeeded to the helm 
being, however, no less averse to the federal system, it was abolished 
in the latter part of the same year, and a constitution was adopted, 
by which the powers of government were placed almost entirely in 
the hands of the general congress and executive, all state rights 
being destroyed. This central system was opposed in many parts 
of the republic, and nowhere more strenuously than in California, 
where the people rose in a body, expelled the Mexican officers, and 
declared that their country should remain independent until the 
federal constitution were restored. The general government, on 
receiving the news of these proceedings, issued strong proclamations 
against the insurgents, and ordered an expedition to be prepared 
for the purpose of reestablishing its authority in the revolted 
territory ; but General Urrea, to whom the execution of this 
order was committed, soon after declared in favor of the fed- 
eralists, and the Californians were allowed to govern themselves as 
they chose for some months, at the end of which, in July, 1837, 
their patriotic enthusiasm subsided, and they voluntarily swore alle- 
giance to the new constitution. 

Since that time, the quiet course of things in California has, so 
far as known, been disturbed by only one occurrence worthy of 
being mentioned ; namely, the capture and temporary occupation of 
Monterey by the naval forces of the United States, under Commo- 
dore T. A. C. Jones, of which the following brief account will suffice. 
This officer, while cruising on the South American coast of the Pa- 
cific, received information which led him to believe that Mexico had, 
agreeably to a menace shortly before uttered by her government^ 
declared war against the United States ; and, being determined 



368 CAPTURE OF MONTEREY BY THE AMERICANS. [184'2. 

to strike a blow at the supposed enemy, he sailed, with his frigate, 
the United States, and the sloop of war Cyane, to Monterey, where 
he arrived on the 19th of October, 1842. Having disposed his 
vessels in front of the little town, he sent an officer ashore, to 
demand the surrender " of the castle, posts, and military places, 
with all troops, arms, and munitions of war of every class," in 
default of which, the sacrifice of human life and the horrors of 
war would be the immediate consequence. The commandant 
of the place, astounded by such a demand, made in a time of 
profound peace, summoned his officers to a council, in which it 
was decided that no defence could be made : he therefore sub- 
mitted without delay, and the flag of the United States replaced that 
of Mexico over all the public edifices ; the fortifications were garri- 
soned by American soldiers, and the commodore issued a proclama- 
tion to the Californians, inviting them to submit to the government 
of the federal republic, which would protect and insure to them the 
undisturbed exercise of their religion, and all other privileges of 
freemen. Scarcely, however, was this proclamation sent forth, ere 
the commodore received advices which convinced him that he had 
been in error, and that the peace between his country and Mexico 
remained unbroken ; he had, therefore, only to restore the place to 
its former possessors, and to retire with all his forces to his siiips, 
which was done on the 2 1st of the month, twenty-four hours after 
the surrender. Thus ended an affair, the eflfects of which have been 
unfortunately to increase the irritation already existing in Mexico 
against the United States, and to render less easy the adjustment of 
the diflferences between the two nations. The armed force in Cali- 
fornia has since been considerably augmented ; but it is evident that 
all the efforts of Mexico would be unavailing to retain those distant 
possessions, in the event of a war with a powerful maritime state. 

In the Sandwich Islands, a complete change has taken place 
since the death of Tamahamaha. His son and successor, Riho 
Riho, died, in 1824, in London, whither he had gone, with his 
queen, to visit his brother sovereign of Great Britain ; and he was 
himself succeeded by Kauikeaouli, another reputed son of the great 
Tamahamaha, who now fills the throne, under the name of Kame- 
hamalia III. These changes were all advantageous to the mission- 
aries from the United States, many of whom were domiciliated in 
the islands ; particularly after the conversion of Krymakoo, or Billy 
Pitt, the old prime minister, and of Kaahumanu, the widow of the 
great Tamahamaha, who, after passing half a century in the con- 



1834.] MISSIONARIES IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 369 

stant practice of the most beastly sensuality, embraced Christianity 
in her old age, and became a zealous and efficient protector of its 
professors.* Boki, the brother of Krymakoo, a powerful chief, 
who had accompanied Riho Riho to England, and, on his return, 
endeavored to obtain the sovereignty of the islands, proved very 
refractory and annoying to the missionaries, alternately cooperating 
with them, or setting them at defiance, according to the dic- 
tates of his ambition .f 

After the death of Rilio Rilio, Kaahumanu, first, and then Kinau 
one of the widows of the late king, conducted the government 
as regents, until 1834, when tiie young sovereign threw oft' all 
restraints, and, taking the reins into his own hands, determined to 
enjoy life like other legitimate princes. Feasting and dancing in 
the old style were again seen in the palace ; drinking shops were 
opened, distilleries were set up, and other ancient immoralities 
reappeared, under the immediate patronage of the court. But the 
church had become a part of the state. The chiefs were all nomi- 
nally Christians ; the missionaries exerted themselves to stem the 
torrent, and they succeeded. The king was obliged to yield ; the 
shops and distilleries were successively closed, and order and 
decency resumed their reign. 

The ill success of this attempt, on the part of the king, to free 
himself from the trammels imposed by the missionaries, of course 
increased their power ; which they exerted with energy, and gen- 

* Krymakoo died in 1825, and Kaaliumanu in 1832; the exemplary manner in 
which they took leave of the pomps and vanities of life is minutely described in the 
History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, pp. 175 
and 230. 

t Boki, having been disappointed in his hopes of attaining the sovereignty of his 
country, sailed, in 1829, with a number of followers, in two vessels, in search of 
some new islands covered with sandal-wood, which were said to have been dis- 
covered in the south-west. One of the vessels returned to Woahoo ; of the other, in 
which Boki commanded in person, nothing has been since heard, except some 
rumors that she was blown up. 

The London Quarterly Review for March, 1827, contains a letter purporting to 
have been written by Boki, at Woahoo, to a friend in London, expressing consider- 
able dissatisfaction with the conduct of the American missionaries, which has given 
those worthy persons much uneasiness, and has caused them to expend much more 
of virtuous indignation and serious argument, in refuting the charges, than it 
deserved. The letter is an exquisite morceau of orthography and stylo, and should 
find a place in the Comic Almanac. See the History of the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, p. 176, and Mr. C. S. Stewart's narrative 
of his residence in the Sandwich Islands, p. 342. The latter work will amply 
repay the reader for the time which he may devote to it ; not only from the informa- 
tion afforded respecting the islands, but also as exhibiting, in the most interesting 
manner, the workings of a pure and enthusiastic mind. 

47 



37*6 CATHOLIC PRIESTS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. [1838. 

erally with discretion, for the benefit of the community. They 
employed every means to keep the chiefs in what tliey considered 
the right path, and to concihate the young. Schools were opened 
wherever scholars could be found ; and the Bible, in the language 
of the islands, was placed in the hands of all who could read it. 
Laws restraining drunkenness and other vices were proposed to the 
government and adopted: in 1838, the importation of spirituous 
liquors was prohibited ; and, in 1840, a written constitution, also 
the work of the missionaries, exhibiting much wisdom and knowl- 
edge of the world on their part, was subscribed by the king and 
his principal nobles. 

In these endeavors to raise a barbarous people to civilization, 
and to place their country among Christian states, the American 
missionaries were constantly opposed and thwarted by their own 
fellow-citizens and the subjects of other nations, who resorted to 
the islands for the purposes of trade, or of refreshment, after long 
and dangerous voyages. The precepts of a religion enjoining self- 
denial in all things could not find favor among such persons ; to 
whom its apostles became objects of hatred, as the destroyers of 
all their pleasures. Bickerings took place between the two par- 
ties : the missionaries were assaulted with sticks, and stones, and 
knives, all which they fearlessly confronted, rather than yield a 
foot of the ground already occupied ; and the young king was 
daily subjected to complaints from sea captains and consuls on 
the one side, and to remonstrances from his spiritual advisers on 
the other. That the latter carried their restrictions too far, con- 
sidering the circumstances, there is reason to believe ; for, though 
no defence can be made for the practices which they reprobated, 
yet many of them can never be prevented by means compatible 
with the enjoyment of civil liberty ; and it may be neither prudent 
nor just to set a mark on all who are guilty of them. 

The American missionaries had to encounter greater difficulties 
from a different source. Other laborers entered the vineyard. In 
1827, two Roman Catholic priests, Messrs, Short, an Irishman, and 
Bachelot, a Frenchman, arrived in the islands, and engaged in the 
conversion of the natives to their form of Christianity. They 
were, of course, regarded with unfriendly eyes by the Protestants, 
and particularly by the pious regent Kaahumanu, to whose faction 
they were opposed ; and, through her influence, they were at 
length, in 1831, expelled from the islands, on the grounds that 
they were idolaters, and worshipped the bones of dead men. A 



1839.] REINSTATEMENT OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 371 

chapel and school were, nevertheless, soon after opened at Hono- 
lulu, by another Catholic priest, named Walsh; and, in 1838, Kaa- 
humanu being dead, Messrs. Bachelot and Short ventured to return 
to the islands, from California, where they had passed the greater 
part of the time, since their expulsion. They were again ordered 
by the government to take their departure ; and, on their refusal, 
were forcibly put on board the vessel which brought them, and 
thus sent away, notwithstanding the protests made by the consuls 
of the United States and Great Britain, on the part of the owners 
of the vessel, and by the conmianders of a British and a French 
ship of war, which arrived at the time in the islands. That the 
Protestant missionaries were the instigators of this proceeding, has 
been asserted, though it is denied by their friends ; that they 
might, if they chose, have prevented it, there can, however, 
be as little doubt, as that they should have done so, if it were in 
their power. 

For this act, which, besides being entirely at variance with the 
constant principle of Protestantism, and the spirit of toleration now 
so happily pervading the world, indicated extreme ignorance, and 
culpable disregard of consequences, on the part of those who 
directed it, a severe retribution was soon after exacted. On the 
9th of July, 1839, the French frigate Artemise arrived at Hono- 
lulu, and her captain, Laplace, immediately demanded reparation 
for the insult offered to his country and its national religion ; with 
which object, he required that the Roman Catholic worship 
should be declared free throughout the islands, and its professors 
should enjoy all the privileges heretofore granted to Protestants ; 
that the government should give a piece of ground for the 
erection of a Catholic church ; that all Catholics imprisoned 
on account of their religion should be liberated ; and, finally, 
that, as a security for the performance of these engagements, 
twenty thousand dollars should be placed, and should remain, in 
his hands. With these demands the king immediately complied ; 
and, had the French commander contented himself with what he 
had thus effected, his conduct would have been blameless in the eyes 
of all unprejudiced men. But he also required and obtained, that 
the brandy and wines of his country, the introduction of which, 
as of all other spirituous liquors, was most properly prohibited by 
law, should be admitted into the islands on paying a duty of not 
more than five per cent, on their value — an act, considering the 
relative degrees of civilization of the two parties, far more repre- 
hensible than that for which he had just before obtained atonement 



372 MISSION OF HAALILEO AND RICHARDS. [184'2. 

Captain Laplace also thought proper to declare in a circular, that, 
in case he should attack Honolulu, the American missionaries 
would not enjoy the protection promised by him to the people of 
civilized nations ; fortunately, however, he had no occasion to 
carry this threat into execution, as it might have produced 
a most serious breach of good understanding between his govern- 
ment and that of the United States. 

Difficulties about the same time arose between the government 
of the Sandwich Islands and the British consul ; in consequence 
of which, the king determined to despatch an agent to the United 
States, Great Britain, and France, in order to obtain, if possible, 
a distinct recognition of the independence of his dominions by 
those nations, and to make some definite arrangement for the 
prevention of difficulties in future. With these objects, Timoteo 
Haalileo, a young native who had been educated in the school of 
the missionaries, and had filled several important offices, was 
selected as the agent ; and he was to be accompanied by Mr. W. 
Richards, one of the American missionaries, who, having distin- 
guished himself, during a long residence in the islands, by his 
zeal in behalf of the people and their government, had, with the 
assent of his brethren, entered regularly into the king's service. 
They arrived in Washington in the winter of 1842, and, upon 
their application. President Tyler addressed a message to Con- 
gress,* in which, after briefly recapitulating the advantages derived 
by the United States from the Sandwich Islands, as a place of 
trade and refreshment for vessels in the Pacific, and alluding to the 
desire manifested by their government to improve the moral and 
social condition of the people, he declared that any attempt by 
another power to take possession of the islands, colonize them, 
and subvert the native government, could not but create dissatis- 
faction on the part of the United States ; and, should such attempt 
be made, the American government would be justified in remon- 
strating decidedly against it. An American commissioner was 
accordingly despatched to the Sandwich Islands, charged to inquire 
and report as to the propriety of establishing diplomatic relations 
with their government ; and Messrs. Haalileo and Richards, after 
some time spent in the United States, proceeded to Great Brit- 
ain and France, where their presence proved ultimately useful in 
bringing about the peaceful solution of the difficulties which had 
occasioned their mission. 

* Message of December 21st, 1842. 



1843.] SANDWICH ISLANDS OCCUPIED BY THE BRITISH. 373 

In the mean time, Lord George Paulet, a captain in the British 
navy, arrived at Woahoo, in February, 1843, in the ship Carysfort, 
and demanded from the king explanations with regard to the 
conduct of his government towards the consul and subjects of her 
Britannic majesty. Not receiving a satisfactory answer within the 
period prescribed, this officer threatened, in the event of longer 
delay, to make an attack upon Honolulu ; whereupon the king, find- 
ing himself unable to comply witii the demands, or to resist them, 
surrendered all the islands under his dominion to Great Britain, 
until the matter could be arranged between the government of that 
country and the agents whom he had already sent thither. The 
Britisli commander accordingly took possession, appointed commis- 
sioners to conduct the administration, and issued various regulations 
for the government of the islands, until further orders could be 
received from England. 

The news of these events created much excitement in the 
United States ; and a protest against the occupation of the Sand- 
wich Islands by Great Britain was immediately addressed by the 
American government to the court of London. On the 25th of 
June, however, the British minister at Washington declared 
officially, that the acts of Lord George Paulet were entirely un- 
authorized by her majesty; conformably with which, King Kamcha-* 
maha was, on the 31st of July, reinstated in all his powers and dig- 
nities by Admiral Thomas, the commander-in-chief of the British 
naval forces in the Pacific. Finally, on the 28th of November, a 
declaration was signed at London, on the parts of the queen of 
England and the king of the French, whereby their majesties "en- 
gaged reciprocally to consider the Sandwich Islands as an inde- 
pendent state, and never to take possession, either directly, or un- 
der the title of protectorate, or under any other form, of any part 
of the territory of which they are composed." 

These acts of the British and the French, with regard to the 
Sandwich Islands, arose, doubtless, rather from political jealousy, on 
the parts of those nations, than from the simple desire to protect 
their subjects in trade or religion. The French have shown their 
anxiety to obtain a permanent footing on the Pacific, by their at- 
tempts to form a colony in New Zealand, by their military occupa- 
tion of the Washington or North Marquesas Islands and their forci- 
ble seizure of Otaheite, and by various other circumstances ; whilst 
the British have evinced tlieir determination to counteract those 
efforts by others equally unequivocal. To either of these nations the 



374 BRITISH OCCUPY THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. [1834. 

Sandwich Islands would prove a most valuable acquisition, as it 
would afford the means of controlling the trade and fishery of the 
North Pacific, and of exercising a powerful influence over the 
destinies of the north-west coasts of America and California. The 
United States, claiming the north-west coasts, and conducting 
nearly the whole of the fishery and trade of the North Pacific, are 
deeply interested in all that may affect the independence of these 
islands ; and, having neither the power nor the will to establish 
their own authority over them at present, it is the policy and duty 
of their government to oppose, at almost any hazard, the attempts 
of other nations to acquire dominion or influence in this important 
archipelago. 

It will be proper here also to notice, as connected with the history 
and probable destinies of North-West America, the fact of the oc- 
cupation of the Falkland Islands by Great Britain, in 1833. After 
the overthrow of the Spanish supremacy in America, these islands 
were claimed by the government of Buenos Ayres, as having 
formed part of the territory under the direction of the viceroy 
of La Plata ; and attempts were made by that government to 
exercise dominion over them, which produced, in 1831, a collision 
between its authorities and the naval forces of the United States. 
In the month of January, 1833, the British took possession of the 
whole group, which they have ever since occupied ; and, a repre- 
sentation on the subject having been addressed to that government, 
by the diplomatic agent of Buenos Ayres at London, Lord Pal- 
merston, the British secretary for foreign affairs, in reply, main- 
tained* the exclusive right of his nation to the islands, on the 
ground of first discovery and occupation — thus entirely disre- 
garding the sixth article of the Nootka convention of 1790, 
according to which, no settlement could be made, either by Great 
Britain or by Spain, on any part of the coasts of South America 
or the islands adjacent, " situated to the south of those parts of 
the same coasts, and of the islands adjacent, which are already 
occupied by Spain," although his government had, in 1827 
supported the subsistence of that convention with respect to the 
north-west coasts of North America. 

In 1841, the Sandwich Islands, and the coasts of Oregon and 
California, were visited by the exploring ships of the United 
States, under the command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, who 

* Letter from Lord Palinerston to Seiior Moreno, dated January 8th, 1834. See 
Memoir, historical, political, and descriptive, on the Falkland Islands, by Robert 
Greenhow, published in the New York Merchants' Magazine for February, 1842. 



1842.] EXPLORING VOYAGE OF WILKES. 375 

had been specially directed to survey and examine those countries, 
as carefully as circumstances would permit. Lieutenant Wilkes, in 
the sloop of w^ar Vincennes, arrived off the mouth of the Columbia, 
on the 27th of April ; but, finding it hazardous to attempt the 
entrance, he sailed to the Strait of Fuca, and anchored in Puget's 
Sound, near Nasqually, a post belonging to the Hudson's Bay 
Company, from which he despatched several surveying parties into 
the interior. One of these parties crossed the great westernmost 
range of mountains to tiie Columbia ; and, having visited the British 
trading posts of Okinagan, Colville, and Walla- Walla, returned to 
Nasqually. Another party proceeded southward to the Cowelitz, 
and down that river to the main trunk of the Columbia, which was 
examined upwards as far as Walla- Walla, and downwards to the 
ocean. In the mean time, other parties were engaged in surveying 
the coasts and harbors on the Pacific, the Strait of Fuca, and 
Admiralty Inlet, and particularly in exploring the valleys of the 
Willamet River, emptying into the Columbia, and of the Sacra- 
mento, falling into the Bay of San Francisco, which are perhaps the 
most valuable portions of Oregon and California. The perform- 
ance of these important duties was accompanied by an unfortunate 
occurrence. The sloop of war Peacock, one of the exploring 
vessels, commanded by Lieut. William L. Hudson, struck on the 
bar at the mouth of the Columbia, while attempting to enter that 
river, on the 18th of July, and was lost ; her crew, however, in 
consequence of the perfect discipline maintained on board, were 
all landed in safety, with her instruments and papers, on Cape Dis- 
appointment, where they w^ere received, and treated with the 
utmost hospitality, by the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
residing in the vicinity.* 

* The exploring squadron, consisting of tlie sloops of war Vincennes and Pea- 
cock, store-ship Relief, brig Porpoise, and schooners Sea-Gull and Flying-Fish, 
sailed from the Chesapeake on the l!)th of August, 1838, and passed around Cape 
Horn, where several months were employed in exploring, and, unfortunately, tiie 
Sea-Gull was lost, with all on board. Lieutenant Wilkes then crossed the Pacific to 
Australia, south of which, he, in January, 1640, discovered a line of rocky, ice-bound 
coast, extending nearly under the Antarctic circle, from the 92d to the 165th degrees 
of longitude east from London; that is, about 1800 miles. Thence he proceeded 
northward, surveying many groups of islands and intricate channels hitherto im- 
perfectly known, to the coast of Oregon, where he spent the summer of 1841, as 
above stated ; and, having completed his work, he returned, with his vessels, through 
the India seas, and around the Cape of Good Hope, to the United States, where lie 
arrived in June, 1842. The southernmost point attained was in the Pacific, south- 
south-west of Cape Horn, in latitude of 70 degrees 14 minutes, that is, farther south 
than any navigator, except Cook and Weddcll had previously penetrated ; it was 
reached on the 24th of March, 1839, by Lieut. W. M. Walker, commanding the 
Flvinff-Fish. 



376 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
1842 TO 1845. 

Excitement in the United States respecting Oregon — Bill in the Senate for the im- 
mediate Occupation of Oregon — That Bill inconsistent with the Convention of 
1827, between the United States and Great Britain — Renewal of Negotiations be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain — Emigration from the United States 
to Oregon — State of the Hudson's Bay Company's Possessions — Conclusion. 

During the latter years of the period to which the preceding 
chapter relates, the government and people of the United States 
were becoming seriously interested in the subject of the claims of 
the republic to countries west of the Rocky Mountains, which had 
so long remained undetermined. The population of the Union 
had, in fact, been so much increased, that large numbers of per- 
sons were to be found in every part, whose spirit of enterprise and 
adventure could not be restrained within the limits of the states 
and organized territories ; and, as the adjoining central division 
of the continent offered no inducements to settlers, those who 
did not choose to fix their habitations in Texas, began to direct 
their views towards the valleys of tiie Columbia, where they ex- 
pected to obtain rich lands without cost, and security under the 
flag of the stars and stripes. 

The period had, in fact, arrived, when the countries west of the 
Rocky Mountains were to receive a civilized population from the 
United States. 

This feeling began to manifest itself, about the year 1837, by 
the formation of societies for emigration to Oregon, in various 
parts of the Union, and especially in those which had themselves 
been most recently settled, and were most thinly peopled. From 
these associations, and from American citizens already established 
in Oregon, petitions were presented to Congress, as well as resolu- 
tions from the legislatures of states,* urging the general government 
either to settle the questions of right as to the country west of the 
Rocky Mountains, by definitive arrangement with the other claimant, 

* Nearly all these petitions and resolutions came from Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, 
and Michigan. 



1840.] EXCITEMENT IN THE U. STATES RESPECTING OREGON. 377 

or to take immediate civil and military possession of that country ; 
and bills, having for their object the accomplishment of one or both of 
these ends, vv^ere annually introduced into the Senate or the House of 
Representatives of the Union. The members of the executive branch 
of the government, particularly Messrs. Forsyth and Poinsett, the 
able and energetic secretaries of state and of war, were likewise 
assiduously engaged in collecting information respecting the nature 
and grounds of the claims of the United States, and the most 
effective means of enforcing them, in order that the government 
might, when necessary, act with vigor and certainty, and be justi- 
fied before the world. The information thus obtained was, from 
time to time, published, by order of Congress, for the instruction 
of the people on points so important ; * but no bill relating to Ore- 
gon was passed by either house before 1843, nor was any decisive 
measure on the subject adopted by the American government. 

The British government was, meanwhile, not unmindful of its 
interests in the territories west of the Rocky Mountains. Its views 
and intentions were not proclaimed to the world annually, in par- 
liamentary speeches or executive reports : but the Admiralty caused 
the lower part of the Columbia River, the Bay of San Francisco, 
and the adjacent coasts of the Pacific, to be carefully surveyed, in 
1839, by Captain Belcher ;f and the Colonial Office, and Board of 
Trade, were in constant communication with the governor and di- 



* Among these documents, the principal are the following, viz. : Report to the 
Senate, with Maps, and a Bill for the Occupation of Oregon ; presented by Mr. Linn, 
June 6th, 1838 — Reports of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, of the House of 
Representatives, respecting the Territory of Oregon, with a Map, presented Jan. 4th 
and Feb. 16th, 1839, by Mr. Gushing, accompanied by a bill to provide for the pro- 
tection of the citizens of the United States residing in that territory, or trading on 
the Columbia River, and various documents in proof — Memoir, Historical and Polit- 
ical, on the North- West Coast of North America, and the adjacent Countries, with a 
Map and a Geographical View of those Countries, by Robert Greenhow, Translator 
and Librarian to the Department of State ; presented Feb. 10th, 1840, by Mr. Linn 
(see Preface to this History) — Report of tiie Hon. J. R. Poinsett, Secretary of War, 
in relation to the establishment of a line of Military Posts from the Missouri River to 
the Columbia, 1840 — Report of the Military Committee of the House of Representa- 
tives, on the Subject of the Occupation and Defence of the Colmnbia Countries ; 
presented by Mr. Pendleton, May 25tli, 184'2. 

t Narrative of a Voyage round the World, performed in her Majesty's Ship Sul- 
phur, during the Years 1836—1842, by Captain Sir Edward Belcher, R. N. This 
large and expensive work, though ver}' amusing to the general reader, abounds in 
misstatements and inconsistencies, and contains scarcely a single fact or observation 
of importance with regard to the different places visited. The results of the scientific 
investigations, especially the geographical positions of many important points, which 
were determined, doubtless, with the utmost accuracy during the voyage, are omitted. 

48 



378 TREATY BETWEEN THE U. STATES AND G. BRITAIN. [1842. 

rectors of the Hudson's Bay Company, who possessed more exact 
information, on all subjects connected with North- West America, 
than could be obtained from any other source. The British gov- 
ernment and the Hudson's Bay Company have, indeed, always 
acted in concert ; and the measures devised by them are carried 
into execution immediately, without previous reference to the legis- 
lature. Beyond the limits of the government offices, and of the 
Hudson's Bay House, no one in England seems to have taken the 
slightest interest in any thing relating to North- West America. 

In the spring of 1842, Lord Ashburton arrived at Washington, 
as minister extraordinary from Great Britain, with instructions and 
powers to settle certain questions of difl'erence between the two 
nations ; and it was, at first, generally supposed, in the United 
States, and, indeed, in Great Britain, that the establishment of 
boundaries on the Pacific side of America would be one of the 
objects of his mission. A treaty was, however, concluded, in 
August of that year, between him and Mr. Webster, the secretary 
of state of the United States, in which all the undetermined parts 
of the line separating the territories of the two powers, on the 
Atlantic side of America, were defined and settled ; but no allu- 
sion was made to any portion of the continent west of the Rocky 
Mountains. Whether or not Lord Ashburton was empowered by 
his government to treat for a settlement of the question at issue 
respecting the latter territories, no means have yet been afforded for 
learning. No mention of countries west of the Rocky Mountains 
is to be found in the published correspondence relative to the nego- 
tiation ; but the question was discussed by the plenipotentiaries, as 
declared in the following passage of President Tyler s message to 
Congress, at the opening of the session, on the 7th of December, 
1842: "In advance of the acquisition of individual rights to 
these lands, [west of the Rocky Mountains,] sound policy dictates 
that every effort should be resorted to, by the two governments, to 
settle their respective claims. It became evident, at an early hour 
of the late negotiations, that any attempt, for the time being, satis- 
factorily to determine those rights, would lead to a protracted 
discussion, which might embrace in its failure other more pressing 
matters ; and the executive did not regard it as proper to waive all 
the advantages of an honorable adjustment of other difficulties, of 
great magnitude and importance, because this, not so immediately 
pressing, stood in the way. Although the difficulties referred to 
may not, for several years to come, involve the peace of the two 



1842.] BILL IN THE U. S. SENATE FOR OCCUPYING OREGON. 379 

countries, yet I shall not delay to urge on Great Britain the impor- 
tance of its early settlement." The treaty was ratified and defini- 
tively confirmed by both governments ; the exclusion of the Oregon 
question from it, however, increased the excitement respecting that 
country in the United States, and an excitement oh the same subject 
was soon after created in Great Britain. 

The part of the president's message above quoted was referred 
to the committees on foreign affairs in both houses of Congress ; 
and, a few days afterwards, Mr. Linn, one of the senators from 
Missouri, who had always displayed the strongest interest with re- 
gard to the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, and had 
assiduously endeavored to effect their incorporation into the 
republic, brought a bill into the Senate for the occupation and 
settlement of the territory of Oregon, and for extending the laws 
of the United States over it. This bill proposed that the presi- 
dent cause to be erected, at suitable places and distances, a line 
of forts, not exceeding five in number, from points on the Missouri 
and Arkansas Rivers, to the best pass for entering the valley of the 
Columbia, and also at or near the mouth of that river ; that six 
hundred and forty acres of land be granted to every white male 
inhabitant of Oregon, of the age of eighteen years and upwards, 
who shall cultivate and use them for five years, or to his heirs at 
law, in case of his decease, with an addition of one hundred and 
sixty acres for his wife, and the same for each of his children under 
the age of eighteen years ; that the jurisdiction of the courts of 
Iowa be extended over the countries stretching from that territory, 
and from the states of Missouri and Arkansas, to the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and over all countries west of those mountains, between the 
42d and the 49th parallels ; and that justices of the peace be 
appointed for those countries, as now provided by law for Iowa, 
who shall have power to arrest and commit for trial all offenders 
against the laws of the United States ; provided that any subject 
of Great Britain, who may have been so arrested for crimes or 
misdemeanors committed in the countries west of the Rocky 
Mountains, while they remain free and open to the people of 
both nations, shall be delivered up to the nearest or most conve- 
nient British authorities, to be tried according to British laws. 

This bill, it will be seen, contained nearly the same provisions as 
that which had been discussed in the House of Representatives in 
the session of 1828-29,* with the addition of the promise of grants 

• See p. 355. 



380 DEBATE IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. [1842. 

of land to the settlers, after a certain period of occupancy. It was 
defended, generally, on the grounds that its adoption would be the 
exercise, by the United States, of rights which were unquestionable, 
and had been long unjustly withheld from them by Great Britain ; 
and that, taking this for granted, it afforded the best means, in all 
respects, of making good those rights, and securing to the republic 
the ultimate possession of the territories west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, which must otherwise fall, or rather remain, irretrievably, in 
the hands of another power. The opponents to the bill differed in 
their views of its various provisions : many w^ere averse to any 
action whatsoever on the subject at that time, while others con- 
sidered the measures recommended as impolitic, expensive, and by 
no means calculated to attain the end proposed ; but they were 
unanimous in opinion that the cession of lands in Oregon to 
American citizens would be an infraction of the convention of 
1827 W'ith Great Britain, and could not, therefore, be legally made 
until that agreement had been rescinded in the manner therein 
stipulated. In this, as in the other provisions of the bill, however, 
its advocates were unwilling to make any material change, regarding 
them all as essential to the objects in view. 

Mr. Linn, as the proposer of the bill, explained and defended 
each of its provisions, on the grounds of their justice, of their com- 
patibility with the existing diplomatic arrangements, and of their 
efficiency for the attainment of the end in view, namely, the pos- 
session of these extensive and valuable territories by the United 
States, to which they belong of right. After recapitulating the 
various grounds of that right, he contended that the United States 
had been deprived of the privileges of the joint occupancy, secured 
to them in the convention of 1827, by the encroachments of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, which, under the direct protection of the 
British government, had taken actual possession of the whole terri- 
tory beyond the Rocky Mountains. Great Britain, he insisted, was 
there employing the same policy and mechanism, of a great trading 
company, by means of which she had made her way to the domin- 
ion of India ; she already practically occupied all that she ever 
claimed south and north of the Columbia; her agents had directly 
avowed that she would not give up the establishments which she 
had encouraged her subjects to form there ; and, as a further proof 
of her intentions, the Hudson's Bay Company had, within a few 
years, founded farming settlements on an extensive scale, from 
which large exports of provisions are made to the Russian posts 



1843.] DEBATES IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. 381 

and the Sandwich Islands. The bill proposed does not pretend 
to define the territory of the United States, or to dispossess Great 
Britain of what she now holds, but merely to do what she has 
herself done. Can that power object to proceedings, on the part 
of the United States, similar to her own ? She has extended her 
jurisdiction over Oregon, has built forts, and set up farming and 
other establishments. Why cannot the Americans do the same ? 

Mr. Morehead supported the same views. Examining the con- 
vention of 1827, he conceived tiiat it provided only for temporary 
occupation ; but that the felling of forests, the construction of 
regular habitations, the fencing in of fields, the regular improve- 
ment of the soil, the fitting up of mills and workshops, and, added 
to all these, the erection of forts to protect them, as had been 
done by the British, in Oregon, meant something more ; and were 
intended to constitute a lasting, and, of course, exclusive occupa- 
tion of the places thus appropriated. Now, these are not merely 
the acts of the Hudson's Bay Company ; they are done under the 
sanction of the Britisli government, and they form the system 
adopted every where, by that government, for territorial encroach- 
ment, especially against nations capable of resisting attack. 

Mr. Woodbury took a view somewhat different of the bearing 
of the convention of 1827, which he regarded as leaving to each 
party the right to settle, provided the trade were left free to both ; 
in support of which construction, ho cited the declarations of the 
British ministers, during the negotiations on that subject, and the 
stipulations proposed by them, that " neither party should assume 
or exercise any right of sovereignty or dominion over any part of 
the country," and that " no settlement then existing, or which 
might in future be made, should ever be adduced, by either party, 
in support or furtherance of such claims of sovereignty or domin- 
ion." For these reasons, and others which he presented, and sup- 
ported by powerful arguments, he considered that the bill should 
pass, and that the United States should no longer hesitate to exercise 
rights which Great Britain did not scruple to exercise herself. 

Mr. Phelps concurred with Mr. Woodbury in his construction 
of the convention of 1827, which, he conceived, would not be 
violated by the section of the bill providing for grants of land to 
settlers. The gi-ants proposed are but prospective. Citizens of 
the United States are invited to settle in Oregon, and, after 
having resided there five years, certain portions of land are to be 
secured to them. Within those five years, the questions of right 



382 DEBATES IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. [1843. 

to the territory will have been determined, and if those who have 
acted on the faith of the invitation do not then receive the advan- 
tages promised, their government will, of course, be bound to 
indemnify them. 

Mr. McRoberts dwelt particularly on the importance of the con- 
vention of 1790, between Great Britain and Spain ; the fifth 
article of which, according to his construction, assured to Spain 
the sovereignty of all the coasts south of Nootka Sound. 

Mr. Henderson considered the bill of no value, without the 
clause for the appropriation of lands. He regarded the act of the 
British Parliament, extending the jurisdiction of the courts of 
Canada over Oregon, as taking possession of the country. The 
United States must do the same ; on their taking the measure now 
proposed, a conflict of jurisdictions would ensue, which must at once 
compel the adjustment of the question of right. 

Mr. Huntingdon, though firmly convinced of the rights of the 
United States to the territory in question, and of the propriety of 
making them good so soon as possible, could not but consider the 
bill as an infringement of the existing convention with Great 
Britain. The present state of things should undoubtedly be 
ended, but in the manner provided ; namely, by giving immediate 
notice to Great Britain of the intention of the United States to 
abrogate that convention at the expiration of a year. 

Mr. Sevier considered that, the justice of the claims of the 
United States being admitted, there should be no delay in taking 
possession of the country claimed, for which the only means 
were, to provide an adequate amount of population within the 
shortest time. Not only should the lands be granted to them, and 
forts be built and garrisoned for their protection, but, if necessary, 
a railroad should be made from the Missouri to the Columbia, over 
which emigrants might be conveyed in two or three days. 

Mr. McDuffic opposed the bill in toio. He insisted that its 
adoption would be a violation of the convention with Great 
Britain ; as its tendency was, and could be, no other than to take 
possession of the country, and to make ready, by all means and 
appliances, to maintain tliat possession. It was an invitation to 
the citizens of the Union — not to carry on the fur trade, nor to 
do that which the convention permits — but to settle permanently. 
For such a measure ho denied that any emergency then called. 
The question had slept for many years, whilst the United States 
were at the height of their prosperity ; and it was most imprudent 



1843.] DEBATES IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. 383 

to bring it up now, when their condition was far otherwise, and 
to brandish the sword in the face of a powerful opponent, when 
there was every probabihty that tiie matter might be arranged 
peaceably by negotiation. Great Britain had done nothing which 
indicated an intention to establish for herself an exclusive oc- 
cupation : her forts were nothing more than stockades, made by 
her traders for their protection against Indians ; and her subjects 
have interfered with American citizens only by underselling them 
in the commerce with the natives. lie then proceeded to inquire 
what advantages the United States could derive from the terri- 
tories of which it was proposed, at these hazards and costs, to 
take possession. He represented the whole region beyond the 
Rocky Mountains, and a vast tract between that chain and the 
Mississippi, as a desert, utterly without value for agricultural pur- 
poses, and which no American citizen should be condemned to 
inhabit, unless as a punishment ; and he ridiculed the idea that 
steam could ever be employed to facilitate communications across 
the continent, between the Columbia countries and the states of 
the Union. The expenses which the passage of the bill must 
entail, would, he conceived, be incalculable, whilst no returns 
could be expected for them. The fur trade, if advantageous, 
could benefit only a few capitalists, for whose advancement the 
agriculture, commerce, and industry, of the whole republic should 
not be taxed. In conclusion, he entreated the Senate to pause — 
to wait a year, or two years, in order to see what might be done 
by peaceful means, and without a ruinous waste of resources. 

Mr. Calhoun presented a summary of the ground of the claims 
of the United States and of Great Britain to the territories in 
question, and of the arrangements attempted, as well as of those 
made ; and, reviewing the provisions of the bill, he conceived that 
it directly violated the subsisting convention on the subject be- 
tween the two nations. The American government, it is true, 
does not, by this bill, confer grants of land upon its citizens, but 
it binds itself to do so ; and that engagement forms a complete 
reality as to assuming possession. Upon examining all the acts of 
Great Britain, with regard to those countries, he could find nothing 
in them of equal extent and force ; the act of Parliament of 1821 
merely extends the jurisdiction of British laws over British sub- 
jects, and authorizes no possession. He could not but anticipate 
a breach of the peace with Great Britain, if the part of the bill 
then before the Senate, relating to e^rants of land, were carried 



384 DEBATES IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. [1843. 

into effect ; all its other provisions he regarded favorably, and he 
Vi'as resolved to contribute, so far as lay in his power, to the main- 
tenance of all the rights of the United States which could be 
exercised conformably with the convention of 1827. He believed 
the possession of the countries of the Columbia to be important to 
the United States in many respects ; but that the period was not 
come when their occupation should be attempted at the risk of a 
war with the most powerful nation of the earth. Time, he con- 
sidered, would do more for the United States than they could do 
by immediate action themselves: the advance of their citizens over 
the western regions had been already rapid beyond all the calcu- 
lations of the most sanguine statesme^n ; no extraordinary means 
were required from their government to accelerate it. He was 
desirous to give to the bill all the attention which its importance 
required ; and he hoped that it would be recommitted to the 
committee on foreign relations, whose report would doubtless 
throw additional light on the subject. 

Mr. Benton entered at length into the history of discovery and 
settlement on the west coasts of North America ; reviewing, at the 
same time, the various conventions between civilized nations with 
regard to it. He considered the right of the United States to 
the whole territory, as far north as the 49th parallel of latitude, 
to be determined by the possession of Louisiana, the northern 
boundary of which he asserted to have been fixed at that parallel, 
by commissaries appointed agreeably to the treaty of Utrecht. 
He painted in glowing colors the agricultural advantages of the 
territory, which he regarded as inferior in that respect to none in 
the world, and the importance of its rivers, which were, in his 
view, destined to serve as the channels for the conveyance of the 
teas and silks of China to the Atlantic regions of both continents. 
He strongly recommended the passage of the bill, and he was 
prepared for war, if necessary, rather than surrender any portion 
of the country in question. 

Mr. Choate opposed the provision in the bill for grants of land ; 
but in all other particulars he was entirely in favor of it. He con- 
tended that, agreeably to the convention of 18:27, still subsisting, 
neither government, as a government, could do any thing to divest 
the citizens or subjects of the other of the enjoyment of the 
common freedom of the country ; and if the subjects or citizens 
of either made establishments there, they did so at their own 
risk, and neither government was called to interfere. If this bill 



1843.] DEBATES IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. 385 

were passed, its effect must be to hinder some part of the territory 
from being open, except as regards American citizens. He was 
willing that the United States should, as Great Britain had done, 
and as permitted by the convention, extend their jurisdiction over 
all the countries to which the bill applies, and erect forts where 
needed ; but not do more. If they had not done so earlier, it 
was to be attributed to their own supineness, not to the injustice 
of the other party. In conclusion, he considered the matter as 
open for negotiation, and that no time should be lost in terminating 
the questions at issue ; and, as the first step, he would recommend 
that notice be given to Great Britain of the intention of the United 
States to abrogate the existing convention at the end of a year. 

Mr. Berrien objected to the bill proposed, on many grounds, as 
to its principles and its details. The question was one of the 
utmost gravity, — of a future empire, to be founded in the west, 
by the institutions and commerce of the United States, — a ques- 
tion with which weighty considerations are complicated, including 
an important compact with a foreign, power. That power has its 
own views on this question, at variance with those of the United 
States, but in which she doubtless believes as fully. This bill, 
however, supposes all the right to be on the side of the Union, 
which is thus legislating upon an ex parte decision. The territory, 
which forms the subject of the discussion, is a barren and savage 
region, as yet unoccupied by the people of either nation, except 
for hunting, fishing, and trading with the natives ; all which are 
conducted freely and equally by the people of both nations, under 
the faith of a convention to that effect : and by the side of this 
compact a bill is placed, which assumes and engages to give the 
soil itself, and all that goes with it, not merely for the term of the 
duration of the convention, but " as long as the grass shall grow 
or the waters shall flow." The patents, thus granted, would bar 
all British subjects from particular spots ; and the act of granting 
them, being a clear and positive appropriation, by the American 
government, of that domain, would certainly be a violation of the 
compact. It has been alleged that the patents are not imme- 
diate, but provisional ; that the government pledges itself to issue 
them to those entitled to receive them, at the end of five years : 
but there is no difference between these two forms of the act of a 
government — of a perpetual body; the parties are put into 
present possession, and protection is promised to them there. The 
bil!, moreover, violates the faith of the political contract at home, 
49 



386 DEBATES IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. [r843. 

by interfering with the treaty-making power of the executive. 
The adjustment of the matter by negotiation with Great Britain 
is only postponed, in order that it may be soon resumed, with a 
prospect of accommodation ; and it is most inexpedient, at such 
a moment, to interfere with the legitimate organ of the govern- 
ment for such functions. Should the bill pass, it would warrant, 
in his opinion, the exercise, by the president, of the qualified veto, 
given to him by the constitution, for the protection of the peculiar 
prerogative of his office. 

Mr. Archer directed his attention chiefly to what he considered 
as the two great points presented for consideration by this bill ; 
namely, the consistency of the provision for granting allodial 
titles to lands in Oregon, with the stipulations of the convention 
of 1827 ; and the general policy of accelerating the settlement 
of that territory by the people of the United States. Upon the 
first point he showed, by reference to the proceedings and results 
of the several negotiations between the United States and Great 
Britain on the subject, that the title to the territory had been the 
only question discussed ; that no agreement on that question had 
ever been attained ; and that the two governments, finding it im- 
possible to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, had, by the con- 
vention, dissoluble at the pleasure of either, left the country 
equally free to the people of both. The title was thus in suspense, 
and with it were suspended all the privileges flowing therefrom, 
except those of temporary use ; most especially was suspended 
the right to grant a property in the soil ; and if this were not the 
true meaning and intention of the agreement, it was vain and 
useless. No breach of the contract on the part of Great Britain 
had been proved ; the people of that nation had indeed gained 
advantages in trade over the citizens of the United States : yet it 
was not by constraint or intimidation, but by greater dexterity in 
business, which involved no contravention of stipulations, and 
could authorize no contravention on the other side. If the present 
bill should become a law, the United States must be prepared to 
maintain and execute all its provisions ; and Great Britain, though, 
like the United States, directly interested in the continuance of 
peace, would, if she viewed the measures in question as an in- 
fringement of the convention, stand upon that point, when she 
might not stand upon the value of the territory. War might be 
the consequence ; and it was proper to consider on which side 
the advantages would be in the contest, and what would be its 



I 



1843.] DEBATES IN THE SENATE OF THE U. S. ON OREGON. 387 

results. In any case, whether or not war should ensue, the ques- 
tion of the possession of Oregon could only be decided by nego- 
tiation ; and if, at the end of a war, the United States should 
obtain all that they here claim, it would be but a poor recompense 
for the evils and costs incurred. With regard to the policy of 
accelerating the settlement of the territory west of the Rocky 
Mountains, by American citizens, Mr. Archer coincided nearly in 
opinion with Mr. McDuffie ; he considered that territory as of 
little value to any nation ; the part near the coast alone contained 
land fit for agricultural purposes, and there were no harbors which 
were or could be rendered tolerable. The United States had 
seven hundred millions of acres of land east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains still vacant, of which a large portion was more fertile and 
salubrious than any other lands, wherever they might be, even in 
Oregon ; these should be occupied before the population could 
with reason be urged to establish themselves in the latter country. 
In conclusion, he had no objection to the extension of the juris- 
diction of the United States to the Pacific, in the manner proposed 
by the bill, or to the erection of forts on the Columbia, if they 
should be found necessary ; or to any other measure which might 
be taken, pari passu, with Great Britain, not inconsistent with re- 
ciprocal stipulations ; but he should oppose the provision respecting 
grants of land, not only for the reasons already given, but also 
because it would tend to defeat the very object of the bill, namely, 
the ultimate possession of the country west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains by the United States. 

To the objections thus made to his bill, Mr. Linn replied at 
length, displaying considerable ingenuity of argument, particularly 
with the object of showing that all whicii was thereby openly pro- 
posed had been already done in a covert manner by Great Britain. 
He dwelt on the great importance of the Oregon countries, — on 
the vast extent of lands on the Columbia and its tributary streams, 
which were said to exceed in productiveness any in the states 
of the Union, — and on the number and excellence of the harbors 
on those coasts, the use of which was imperatively required by 
the American whaling vessels employed in the adjacent ocean, — 
on the facility with which travel and transportation might be 
effected across the continent, by means of ordinary roads at pres- 
ent, and by railroads hereafter ; and he produced a number of 
letters, reports, and other documents from various sources, con- 
firming all these statements. Finally, he appealed to the honor 



388 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CONVENTION OF 1827. [1843. 

and generosity of the nation, for its protection to the American 
citizens already estabUshed in Oregon, who had gone thither ia 
confidence that such aid would be extended to them, and were 
groaning under the oppressions of the Hudson's Bay Company.* 

Previous to the final vote, Mr. Archer endeavored to have the 
clause respecting the grants of lands struck out ; but his motion 
did not prevail, and on the 3d of February, 1843, the bill w^as 
passed by the Senate, twenty-four being for and twenty-two 
against it. It was immediately sent to the House of Representa- 
tives, in which a report against its passage was made by Mr. 
Adams, the chairman of the committee on foreign affairs ; the 
session, however, expired without any debate on the subject in 
that House. 

In order to determine whether the bill for the occupation of 
Oregon, passed by the Senate of the United States, in 1843, could, 
if it had become a law, have been carried into fulfilment without a 
breach of public faith, until after the abrogation of the existing 
convention with Great Britain, in the manner therein stipulated, it 
will be necessary first to analyze that convention, and to reduce 
the various permissions, requirements and prohibitions, involved in 
it, to their simplest expressions. The two nations, on agreeing, 
as by that convention, to leave the territory west of the Rocky 
Mountains, with its waters, free and open to the citizens and 
subjects of both, of course agreed that neither should exercise 
any exclusive dominion, or do any thing calculated to hinder the 
people of the other from enjoying the promised advantages in any 
part of that territory. Each nation, of course, reserved to itself 
the right to provide for the maintenance of peace and the admin- 
istration of justice among its own citizens, and to appoint agents 
for that purpose : it was, indeed, the duty of each, as a civilized 
power, to do so without delay ; and it was morally imperative upon 
them to enter into a supplementary compact for the exercise of 
concurrent jurisdiction, in cases affecting the persons or interests 
of subjects or citizens of both, unless provision to that effect 
should have already been made in some other way. Finally, as 
the country was inhabited by tribes of savages, the citizens and 
subjects of each of the civilized nations residing therein might 

* This was destined to be the last effort of Mr. Linn for the advancement of the 
cause to which he had so long devoted his powerful energies. He expired on the 
3d of October, 1843, at his residence in St. Genevieve, Missouri, without warning, 
and probably without a struggle. 



1843.] CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CONVENTION OF 1827. 389 

take precautions for their defence against attacks from those 
savages, by mihtary organization among themselves, and by the 
erection of the fortifications necessary for that special purpose ; 
and it here again became the duty of the contracting parties to 
settle by compact the manner in which their governments might 
jointly or separately aid their people in such defence. 

As the advantages offered to the citizens or subjects of the two 
nations are not defined, the terms of the convention relating to 
them are to be understood in their most extensive favorable sense ; 
including the privileges, not only of fishing, hunting, and trading 
with the natives, but also of clearing and cultivating the ground, 
and using or disposing of the products of such labor in any 
peaceful way, and of making any buildings, dams, dikes, canals, 
bridges, roads, &,c., which the private citizens or subjects of the 
parties might make in their own countries ; under no other restric- 
tions or limitations than those contained in the clause of the con- 
vention providing for the freedom and openness of the territory 
and waters, or those which might be imposed by the respective 
governments. 

This appears to be the amount of the permissions, requirements, 
and prohibitions, of the convention ; and, had the two governments 
done all that is here demanded, no difficulties could have been 
reasonably apprehended — so long, at least, as the territory in ques- 
tion remains thinly peopled. These things, however, have not all 
been done ; not only has no supplementary compact been made 
between the two nations, but the government of the United States 
has neglected to secure the protection of their laws to their citi- 
zens, who have thus, doubtless, in part, been prevented from 
drawing advantages from the convention equal to those long since 
enjoyed by British subjects, under the security of the prompt and 
efficient measures of their government. 

If this view of the existing convention between the United 
States and Great Britain, relative to the territory west of the 
Rocky Mountains, be correct, and embrace all its permissions and 
prohibitions, neither of the parties could be justified, during the 
subsistence of the agreement, in ordering the erection of forts at 
the mouth of the Columbia, where they certainly are not required 
for protection against any third power, and in promising to secure 
large tracts of land in that territory, by patent, to its citizens or 
subjects. Had the bill passed by the Senate in 1843 become a 
law, the convention would from that moment have been virtually 



390 DEBATE IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT ON OREGON. [1S43. 

and violently rescinded : and any attempt to enforce the measures 
would undoubtedly have been resisted by Great Britain. The 
abrogation of the convention, in the manner therein provided, or 
in some other way, by common consent of the parties, should 
precede all attempts, by either, to occupy any spot in the territory 
permanently ; and whenever the government of either nation 
considers the time to be near, in which such occupation, by its own 
citizens or subjects, will be indispensable, it should endeavor to 
settle, by negotiation with the other power, some mode of effecting 
that object, before giving notice of its intention to abrogate the 
agreement ; for such a notice can only be regarded as the an- 
nouncement of the determination of the party giving it to take 
forcible possession of the territory at the end of the term. 

The reports of the debates in the American Senate on the bill 
for the occupation of Oregon, reached England while the treaty, 
recently concluded at Washington, was under consideration in 
Parliament ; and they did not fail to elicit some observations in 
the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston, the late secretary for 
foreign affairs, and then leader of the opposition, pronounced 
that, if the bill should pass, and be acted on, it would be equiva- 
lent to a declaration of war, as it would be the invasion and 
seizure of a territory in dispute, by virtue of a decree made by 
one of the parties in its own favor. Mr. Macaulay, who had been 
the secretary of war under the previous administration, con- 
ceived that the fact of the passage of such a bill by the Senate, 
a body comprising among its members a large portion of the men 
of the greatest weight and most distinguished ability in the United 
States, showed a highly-excited condition of the public mind in 
that country. Mr. Blewitt quoted the words of one of the 
senators in the debate, as being a most violent attack on England : 
and he regarded the mode in which the matter had been dealt 
with in the Senate as an insult to his nation. Sir Robert Peel, 
the premier, in answer, simply stated, that communications of 
a friendly nature, on the subject of Oregon, were then going 
on between the two governments, a proposition having been 
addressed to the United States, for considering the best means of 
effecting a conciliatory adjustment of the questions respecting 
those territories ; and that, if the bill introduced into the American 
Senate had passed both Houses of Congress, it would not have 
received the sanction of the executive, which had given assur- 
ances of its anxiety to settle those questions by negotiation. 



1843.] EMIGRATION FROM THE U. STATES T'O OREGON. 391 

This last declaration from Sir Robert Peel was confirmed by the 
president of the United States, in his message sent to Congress on 
the 5th of December following; and, in February, 1844, the Hon- 
orable Richard Pakenham arrived in Washington, as minister pleni- 
potentiary from Great Britain, with full instructions to treat for a 
definitive arrangement of the disputed points relative to the coun- 
tries west of the Rocky Mountains.* 

In the mean time, the excitement in the United States with re- 
gard to the immediate occupation of Oregon, as well as the difficul- 
ties of effecting an amicable arrangement of the questions with Great 
Britain respecting that country, had increased and become more 
general. In each year since 1838, small parties of emigrants had set 
out from Missouri for the Columbia ; but they had suffered so much 
on their way, from hunger, thirst, fatigue, and a dread of Indians, 
that few had reached the place of their destination, and those who 
returned to the United States gave accounts of their expeditions by 
no means calculated to induce otliers to follow them. On exam- 
ining these accounts, however, it appeared that in all cases the par- 
ties had been insuflScient in numbers, or were not provided with the 
requisite supplies, or were guided and commanded by incompetent 
persons ; besides which, nothing like an assurance of protection, after 
they should have made their settlements, was afforded by their gov- 
ernment. On the faith of the promise of such protection, held out 
by the passage through the Senate of the bill for the immediate 
occupation of Oregon, a thousand persons, men, women, and chil- 
dren, assembled at Westport, near the Missouri River, on the fron- 
tier of the state of Missouri, from which they began their march to 
Oregon, with a large number of wagons, horses, and cattle, in June, 
1843.f They pursued the route along the banks of the Platte, 
and its northern branch, which had been carefully surveyed in the 
preceding year by Lieutenant Fremont, of the United States army,f 
to the South Pass, in the Rocky Mountains ; thence through the 
valleys of the Green and Bear Rivers to the Hudson's Bay Compa- 
ny's post, called Fort Hall, on the Lewis ; and thence, in separate 
parties, to the Willamet valley, where they arrived in October. Their 
journey, of more than two thousand miles, was, of course, laborious 
and fatiguing ; they were subjected to many difficulties and priva- 
tions, and seven of their party died on the way, from sickness 

* Sir Robert Peel's speech in the House of Commons, February Gth, 1S44. 
t See the interesting report and map of Lieutenant Fremont, published by order of 
the Senate, in the spring of 1843. 



392 AMERICAN EMIGRANTS TO OREGON. [1843. 

or accident.* Their numbers and discipline, however, enabled them 
to set at defiance the Sioux and the Blackfeet, those Tartars of the 
American stejjpes, who could only gaze from a distance at the 
crowd of pale-faces leaving the sunny valleys of the Mississippi for 
the rugged wilds of the Columbia. Upon the whole, the difficulties 
were less than had been anticipated, even by the most sanguine 
partisans of the immediate occupation of Oregon ; and the success 
of the expedition encouraged a still greater number to follow in 
1844, before the end of which year the number of American citi- 
zens in Oregon exceeded three thousand. 

The increase of the numbers of American citizens in Oregon was 
noticed by the president, in his Message to Congress of the 5th of 
December following, in which he repeated the assurance that every 
proper means would be used to bring the negotiation recently re- 
newed with Great Britain to a speedy termination ; and he strongly 
recommended the immediate establishment of military posts at 
places on the line of route to the Columbia. In the course of the 
session, each House of Congress received various memorials, pe- 
titions, and resolutions, from State legislatures, all urging the govern- 
ment to adopt measures for the immediate establishment of the right 
of the United States to the countries beyond the Rocky Mountains ; 
and several bills having in view the same object were introduced 
and debated, though none of them were passed by either branch of 
the federal legislature. Of these bills, some were nearly identical 
with that which had been passed by the Senate in the preceding ses- 
sion ; the others were to the effect, that notice should be immedi 
ately given to the British government of the intention of the United 
States to terminate the convention of 1827, in the time and man- 
ner therein provided. The debates were continued in both houses, 

* It may be here remarked, that, on the 1st of July, 1843, while this crowd of men, 
women, and children, with their wagons, horses, and cattle, were quietly pursuing their 
way across the continent, to the regions of the lower Columbia, an article appeared in the 
Edinburgh Review — a journal commonly well informed, and fair in its views on Amer- 
ican matters — in which it was affirmed, ex-cnthcdra, that — '■' Hoiccrcr the jwiitical 
questions between England and Jlmerica, as to the oicncrship of Oregon, may be decided, 
Oregon will never be colonized overland from the United States." The Reviewer 
asserts that — " The world must assume a neioface, before the Jlmcrican wagons make 
plain the road to the Columbia as they have done to the Ohio/, " and he determines that — 
" IVJioever, therefore, is to be the future owner of Oregon, its people will come from Eu- 
rope." This is not the first occasion, in which European predictions, implying doubts 
as to the energy of American citizens, and their capacity to execute what they have 
undertaken, have been contradicted by facts, so soon as uttered. The American 
emigrants reached Oregon by a road which nature has made as plain as that from 
the Atlantic to the Ohio ; and no one will question their power to maintain them- 
selves there, if any people can do so. 



1844.] DEBATES IN CONGRESS. 393 

for some time, embracing not only all the questions connected with 
the claim of the United States to Oregon, but also incidentally, that 
respecting the north-eastern boundary of theRepublic,which had been 
already settled by the treaty of Washington. The abrogation of the 
convention was defended, as a legitimate and unexceptionable means 
of opening Oregon to American citizens, from which they were 
now wholly excluded ; and as offering to those desirous of emi- 
grating thither, some guarantee of future protection by their govern- 
ment. It was opposed chiefly on the ground that a negotiation 
respecting the rights of the two claimant powers, was about to be 
opened, agreeably to an invitation from the American government ; 
and that it would be impolitic if not improper and indecorous thus 
to determine what was declared to be a subject for discussion ; as 
the notice of the intention to annul the agreement could only be 
interpreted as a direct assertion of absolute right, and of a resolu- 
tion to maintain that right by force, if necessary, at the end of the 
period prescribed. The advocates of abrogation were averse to 
any further negotiations ; contending that in all those entered into 
upon this subject, the United States had suffered, and that the 
British were only anxious to gain time, and thus to continue the 
exclusion of American citizens, until they could themselves occupy 
the whole territory : but if a negotiation should now be com- 
menced it would end before the expiration of the period stated in 
the notice ; when either some new arrangement would have been 
made, or it would be seen that Great Britain was resolved to con- 
test the claim of the United States at all hazards. On the other 
hand it was insisted that the British could never occupy the coun- 
try ; that they could use it only for the fur trade, which was de- 
clining rapidly, and must speedily cease ; and that Oregon would 
come into the possession of the Americans by quiet and silent emi- 
gration, as soon as could be reasonably desired, if not sooner. 
Equally different were the anticipations of the two parties, as to 
the results of a war with Great Britain, if it should be occasioned 
by the measure proposed ; the one holding up defeat, devastation, 
destruction of commerce, and dissolution or dismemberment of the 
Union, as the probable consequences, while the other seemed to^ 
entertain no doubt that it would lead to the overthrow of the 
British dominions in North America. 

At the commencement of the ensuing session of Congress, the 
President declared, in his message, that a negotiation had been for- 
mally begun, and was pending between the secretary of state and 
50 



894 NEGOTIATIONS IN PROGRESS. [1844. 

her Britannic majesty's minister plenipotentiary, relative to the rights 
of the respective nations to Oregon. The report of the secretary of 
w^ar, accompanying this message, contained a recommendation, for 
the establishment of a territorial government over the region traversed 
by the river Platte, between the States of Missouri and Arkansas 
on the east, and the Rocky Mountains on the west, and for the for- 
mation of military posts on the line of route from those States to 
Oregon and California. Agreeably to this recommendation, bills 
were introduced into the House of Representatives for establishing 
such a government over the country above described, which was to 
be called the Nebraska Territory, and for extending the jurisdiction 
of its courts over Oregon ; but they were not made the subject of 
debate during the session. A bill for the immediate occupation of 
Oregon under a territorial government, and for abrogating the Con- 
vention of 1827, in the manner provided by that agreement, was 
however passed in the House of Representatives, but it was not dis- 
cussed in the Senate. With regard to the measures last mentioned 
nothing will be here said, in addition to what has already been ob- 
served. The propositions for establishing a territorial government 
over the Nebraska country, and for extending the benefit of its laws 
to Oregon, appear to have combined every legislative provision 
required by present circumstances, to maintain the rights of the 
United States, and to ensure protection to their citizens beyond the 
Rocky Mountains. On the 19th of February, 1845, the President 
informed Congress, by a message, that considerable progress had 
been made in the negotiation with Great Britain, which had been 
carried on in a very amicable spirit, and there was reason to hope 
that it might be speedily terminated ; but nothing farther was com- 
municated on the subject during" that session, or during the extra 
session of the Senate in March. 



The history of the western section of North America has now 
been brought down to as late a period as the information obtained 
respecting that part of the world could warrant. Accounts have 
been presented of all the expeditions, discoveries, settlements, and 
other events, worthy record, and of all the claims and pretensions 
advanced by civilized nations, and all the disputes, negotiations, and 
conventions between their governments, relative to these territories. 

It has been shown that the discovery of the west coast of the 
continent, certainly as far north as the 49th degree of latitude. 



1844.] GENERAL REVIEW. 395 

and probably much farther, and of the western sides of the west- 
ernmost islands flanking that continent, between the 49th and 
56th degrees, is due entirely to the Spaniards ; that these coasts 
were subsequently explored more minutely by the navigators of 
Great Britain, Spain, and the United States, previous to their 
more complete survey by the subjects of Great Britain under Van- 
couver ; after which, the vast territories of the interior, drained 
by the Columbia, were first traversed and examined by the citizens 
of the American Union, under Lewis and Clarke, in 1805-6 
With regard to occupation, it has been proved conclusively, that no 
establishment whatever was made by any civilized people except 
Spaniards and Russians, in any part of the western section of North 
America, until 1806, when the first British post west of the Rocky 
Mountains was founded on the upper waters of Frazer's River, near 
the 54th degree of latitude ; and that the earliest establishments 
in the countries drained by the Columbia, which had been first 
discovered and first explored by the Spaniards and the citizens of 
the United States, were made in 1809 and the four succeeding 
years by the people of the latter republic. 

Of the international questions, arising from these discoveries and 
settlements, the only serious one now remaining undetermined is 
that betvveea the United States and Great Britain, involving nothing 
less than the right of possessing the vast territories of the Colum- 
bia, commonly called Oregon. Concerning this question, it has 
been shown, that the United States asserted their right against 
Great Britain in 1815, as founded upon the discoveries and settle- 
ments of their citizens, made prior to any by the other party ; and 
that having obtained by the Florida treaty, in 1819, all the titles of 
Spain to those countries, their government has ever since claimed 
the exclusive sovereignty over them, though it has more than once 
offered, for the sake of peace, to surrender to Great Britain all north 
of the 49th parallel of latitude. On the other hand, it has been 
shown that the British government first claimed the possession of 
the Columbia regions in 1815, on the ground of their having 
been early taken possession of in the name of their sovereign, and 
ever since considered as part of his dominions ; and then in 1824, 
in virtue of settlements alleged to have been made by British sub- 
jects, coeval with, if not prior to, any by American citizens ; after 
which, repeated and direct assertions of positive right, that power 
declared officially in 1826, — that she claimed no exclusive sovereignty 
over any portion of those territories, limiting her pretensions re- 



396 Hudson's bay company's system. fl844. 

specting them, to a right of joint occupancy with other states, 
agreeably to the Nootka Convention between herself and Spain, in 
1790, and leaving the right of sovereignty in abeyance. On the 
claim of Great Britain, thus formally reduced to specific terms, it 
has been considered sufficient to show, that, agreeably to the usages 
of nations, and to the never-failing practice of that power, as main- 
tained by her government, particularly in the negotiation with the 
United States in 1816, respecting the Newfoundland fishery,* the 
Nootka Convention expired in 1796, and has ever since remained a 
dead letter. 

The British government cannot continue to uphold the sub- 
sistence of the Nootka Convention, upon which all its claims were 
thus made to rest, in 1827, without direcdy impugning its own 
declaration that " Great Britain knows no exception to the rule 
that all treaties are put an end to by a subsequent war between the 
same parties ;" as well as the legality of its present occupation of 
the Falkland Islands, from which the British are excluded by that 
convention : nor can the United States and their government 
submit to such various interpretations of the same national law. 
From the negotiation now in progress, neither the records of the 
former discussions, nor subsequent events, nor the present state of 
the parties, encourage the hope for any definite settlement of the 
questions at issue, that is to say, of the boundaries west of the 
Rocky Mountains : though possibly some change in the existing 
convention, or some supplement to it may be effected, or more 
probably its immediate abrogation may be the consequence ; and 
under this view it will be proper to present some concluding obser- 
vations on the condition of the countries, and their inhabitants, 
subject to those stipulations. 

The countries to which the convention of 1827 applies, have un- 
til a recent period, been, so far as regards the advantages derived 
from them, entirely in the possession of Great Britain ; while the 
United States, the other party to that treaty, have only secured the 
continuance of their title unimpaired. The British represented first 
by the North- West Company, and afterwards by the Hudson's Bay 
Company, have enjoyed the quiet and almost exclusive use of the 
Columbia regions from 1814 to 1840. That the people of the Uni- 
ted States did not participate in these advantages, doubtless arose 
principally from the circumstance, that they could render their ex- 

* See page 318. 



1844.] Hudson's bay company's treatment of Indians. 397 

ertions more productive elsewhere ; and also probably because their 
government, from its nature, could not afford them assurances and 
facilities for organization, similar to those which have imparted so 
much vigor and efficiency to the operations of the British. 

The Hudson's Bay Company thus assisted and protected in every 
way by its government, became a powerful body. The field for its 
labors was at once vastly increased by the license to trade, in exclu- 
sion of all other British subjects, in the countries west of the Rocky 
Mountains, where the fur-bearing animals were more abundant than 
in any other part of the world ; while the extension of the jurisdic- 
tion of the Canada courts over the whole division of the continent, 
to which its charters apply, and the appointment of its own agents 
as magistrates, in those regions, gave all that could have been de- 
sired for the enforcement of its regulations. The arrangement made 
with the Russian American Company, through the intervention of 
the two governments, secured the most advantageous limits in the 
north-west ; and the position assumed by Great Britain, in the dis- 
cussions with the United States, respecting Oregon, were calculated 
to increase the confidence of the Company, in the strength of its 
tenure of that country, and to encourage greater efforts. 

In addition to the aid thus derived from government, the consti- 
tution of the Hudson's Bay Company is such as to secure know- 
ledge and prudence in council, and readiness and exactness in exe- 
cution. The proceedings of its directors, by whom all general 
orders and regulations are issued, and all accounts are comptrolled, 
are enveloped as much as possible, in secrecy ; all communications 
which are likely to be published, being expressed in terms of studied 
caution, and affording only the details absolutely required. The 
number of persons in its employ is small, considering the amount of 
duties performed by them ; tiie manner of their admission into th<; 
service, the training to which they are subjected, and the expectations 
held out to them, being calculated to render their efficiency and 
devotion to the general interests, as great as possible. The strictest 
discipline, regularity and economy are enforced throughout the 
Company's territories ; and the magistrates appointed under the act 
of parliament, for the preservation of tranquillity, are seldom called 
to exercise their powers, except in the settlement of trifling dis- 
putes. 

In the treatment of the aborigines of these countries, the Hud- 
son's Bay Company appears to have admirably combined and recon- 
ciled policy with humanity. The prohibition to supply them with 



398 Hudson's bay company's treatment of Indians. [1844. 

ardent spirits, appears to be rigidly enforced. Schools for the in 
struction of their children are established at all the principal trading 
posts, each of which also contains a hospital for sick Indians, and 
offers employment for those disposed to work, whilst hunting cannot 
be carried on. Missionaries of various sects are encouraged to en- 
deavor to convert them to Christianity, and to induce them to adopt 
the usages of civilized life, so far as may be consistent with the na- 
ture of the labors required for their support ; and attempts are made, 
at great expense, to collect them in villages, on tracts where the 
climate and soil are most favorable for agriculture. Particular care 
is extended to the education of the half-breed children, the offspring 
of the marriage or concubinage of the traders with the Indian 
women, who are retained, and bred as far as possible among the 
white people, and are employed, whenever they are found capable, 
in the service of the Company. As there are few or no white 
women in those territories, except in the Red River settlements, it 
may be easily seen that the half-breeds must in time form a large if 
not an important portion of the native population. 

The conduct of the Hudson's Bay Company in these respects is 
certainly worthy of commendation. It is however to be observed, 
that of the whole territory placed under the authority of that body, 
either by its charter or by license, only a few small portions are 
capable of being rendered productive by agriculture : from the re- 
mainder of the country, nothing of value in comrr\erce can be ob- 
tained except furs, and those articles can be procured in greater 
quantities and at less cost, by the labor of the Indians, than by any 
other means. There is, consequently, no object in expelling or 
destroying the natives who occupy no land required for other pur- 
poses and can never be dangerous from their numbers ; while on 
the contrary, there is a direct and evident motive of interest to pre- 
serve and conciliate them, and the Company certainly employs the 
best methods to attain those ends. By the system above described, 
the natural shyness and distrust of the savages have been in a great 
measure removed ; the ties which bound together the members of 
the various tribes have been loosened, and extensive combinations 
for any purpose have become impossible. The dependence of the 
Indians upon the Company is at the same time rendered entire and 
absolute ; for having abandoned the use of all their former arms, 
hunting and fishing implements, and clotlies, they can no longer 
subsist without the guns, ammunition, fish-hooks, blankets and other 
similar articles, which they receive only from the British traders. 



1844.] HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S TREATMENT OF AMERICANS. 399 

The position of the Hudson's Bay Company towards these people, 
is thus wholly different from that of the East India Company, with 
respect to the Chinese ; the motives of the former body to prohibit 
the introduction of spirits among the Indians, being no less strong 
than those of the latter, to favor the consumption of opium in 
China. 

The course observed by the Hudson's Bay Company towards 
American citizens, in the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, 
has been equally unexceptionable, and yet equally poUtic. All the 
missionaries and emigrants from the United States, and indeed all 
strangers from whatsoever country they might come, have been re- 
ceived at the establishments of the company on the Columbia with 
the utmost kindness and hospitality, and aided in the prosecution of 
their objects, so far and so long as those objects were not commer- 
cial. But no sooner did any one unconnected with the Company, 
attempt to hunt, or trap, or to trade with the natives, than all the 
force of the body was immediately turned towards him. There is 
no evidence or well-founded suspicion, that violent means have ever 
been employed by the company, directly or indirectly, to defeat the 
efforts of its rivals. Many American citizens have been murdered 
by the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains ; but many more ser- 
vants of the Hudson's Bay Company have suffered in the same way. 
Indeed, violent means would have been unnecessary on the part of 
the Company, whilst it enjoyed advantages so great over all other 
competitors in trade, by its organization, its wealth, and the know- 
ledge of the country possessed by its agents. Wherever an Ameri- 
can port has been established, or an American party has been en- 
gaged in trading on the Columbia, an agent of the Hudson's Bay has 
soon appeared in the same quarter, at the head of a number of ex- 
perienced hunters, or with a large amount of specie or merchandise 
on hand, to be given to the Indians foi furs, on terms much lower 
than the Americans could offer ; and the latter, thus finding their 
labors vain, were soon obliged to retire from the field. Even with- 
out employing these extraordinary and expensive means, the British 
traders, receiving their goods in the Columbia by sea from London, 
free from duty, can always undersell the Americans, who must 
transport their merchandise more than two thousand miles over 
land, from the frontiers of the United States, where many of the 
articles best adapted for the trade have previously been subjected to 
import duties. In pursuance of the same system, the Company en- 
deavors, and generally with success, to prevent the vessels of the 



400 Hudson's bay company's treatment of Americans. [1844. 

United States from obtaining cargoes on the north-west coasts of 
America ; thougli the mariners of all nations, when thrown upon 
these coasts by shipwreck or by other misfortunes, have uniformly 
received shelter and protection, at its posts and factories. On the 
other hand, the publications made by the directors and agents of 
the Hudson's Bay Company evince the most hostile feelings towards 
the citizens of the United States, against whom every species of 
calumny is levelled in those works, whilst, at the same time, all their 
efforts to establish themselves in Oregon are derided.* 

Under these circumstances, the fur trade has, until recently, been 
very profitable to the Hudson's Bay Company ; but it is now cer- 
tainly declining in every part of North America, from the diminu- 
tion of the number of the animals, whilst the price of furs does not 
increase, in consequence of the advantageous employment of silk, 
cotton, and wool in their place, particularly in China. The Hud- 
son's Bay Company endeavors to prevent this decrease of the ani- 
mals in the countries east of the Rocky Mountains, by withdrawing 
its hunters and traders from certain districts in succession, during a 
number of years ; but in the Columbia countries, where its control 
is not exclusive, and its tenure of the soil is insecure, no precautions 
of this kind are observed, and many of its posts have therefore been 
reduced or abandoned. 

As the fur trade in the Columbia regions declined, the Hudson's 
Bay Company began to turn its attention to agriculture, pasturage, 
cutting timber, fishing, and other pursuits, for which persons were 
introduced from Canada or from Europe, and extensive establish- 
ments have been formed in several places. From the use or ex- 
portation of these products, some revenue is saved or gained, but it 
is evident that capital thus invested can yield but slender returns, and 
no other modes for its employment are offered at present in Oregon, 
or further north. Those countries, indeed, contain lands in de- 

* See History of the Oregon Territory and British Ajnerican Fur Trade, Ify John 
Dunn, 8vo. London, 1844, a compound of ridiculous blunders, vulgar ribaldry, and 
infamous calumnies, against the United States and their citizens. In blind and fe- 
rocious hatred of the Americans, Mr. Dunn, ex-storekeeper at Fort Vancouver, may 
indeed claim equality with His Exc'y Charles Povvlett Thompson, Lord Sydenham, 
some time President of the Board of Trade of Great Britain, and subsequently 
Governor and Captain-General of Canada. See the memoirs and letters of this 
latter worthy, published by his brother, and also the admirable remarks on that 
work by Lord Brougham, in his Historical Sketches of the Statesmen of the time of 
George IH. It will be borne in mind that the letters containing these libels were 
addressed by Lord Sydenham to the British ministers, his former colleagues in 
office ; and that they are published by his attached relative as evidences of his 
character, and as claims to the admiration of his countrymen. 



1844. J RED RIVER SETTLEMENT. 401 

tached portions, which may afford to the industrious cultivator the 
means of subsistence, and also, in time, of procuring some foreign 
luxuries ; but they produce no precious metals, no cotton, no coffee, 
no rice, no sugar, no opium ; nor are they, like India, inhabited by 
a numerous population, who may be easily forced to labor for the 
benefit of a few. 

With regard to colonization — it has been already said that a very 
small proportion of the territories belonging to, or held under license 
by the Hudson's Bay Company, is capable of being rendered produc- 
tive by cultivation. The only place east of the Rocky Mountains, in 
which attempts have been made to found permanent agricultural 
settlements, is on the Red River, between the 49th parallel of lati- 
tude, there forming the northern boundary of the United States, 
and Lake Winnipeg, into which that river empties. Of the cession 
of this country by the Hudson's Bay Company to Lord Selkirk, and 
the unfortunate results of his first efforts to colonize it, accounts 
have been already given. New efforts, with the same object, but 
with no better results, were afterwards made by the son and suc- 
cessor of that nobleman ; and the territory was at length, in 1836, 
retro-ceded to the Company, which has, with much difficulty and 
expense, established on it about six thousand persons, nearly all of 
them Indians and half-breeds, under what conditions as to tenure of 
the soil, is not known.* The land produces wheat, rye, potatoes, 

* Mr. Pelly, the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, in a letter addressed 
on the 10th of February, 1837, to Lord Glcnclg, the British secretary for the colo- 
nies, says, "This rising community, if well governed, may be found useful at 
some future period, in the event of difficnlties occurring between Great Britain and 
the United States of America, who have several military posts, say those of the 
Sault Saint Mary, Prairie du Chien, and the River Saint Peter's, established on 
their Indian frontiers, along the line of boundary with British North America." On 
the other hand, Mr. Thomas Simpson, an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, in 
his interesting account of the discoveries etfected by himself and his companion, 
Dease, in 1838 and 1S39, states that the settlers on the Red River have " found 
out the only practicable outlet for their cattle and grain, in the fine level plains 
leading to the Mississippi and the St. Peter's, where there is a promise of a 
sufficient market among the Americans," particularly as " the bulky nature of the 
exports, a long and dangerous navigation to Hudson's Bay, and above all, the 
roving and indolent habits of the half-breed race, who form the mass of the po- 
pulation, and love the chase of the butfalo better than the drudgery of agriculture, 
or regular industry, seem to preclude the possibility of this colony rising to im-* 
portance." He moreover adds, that the Scotch, who compose a small, but the 
only useful portion of the community, carefully avoid all amalgamation with the 
others ; in order to prevent which, they generally retire to the United States, so 
soon as they have by industry and economy accumulated a moderate amount of 
property. There being fortunately no prospect of " difficulties occurring between 
Great Britain and the United States," we may hope that the little colony on the Red 
River, will flourish, and profit by its vicinity to the great state of Iowa. 

51 



402 AMERICAN CITIZENS IN OREGON. [1844. 

hemp, flax, and some other vegetables, ajid grass for cattle, tolerably 
well, and it may be considered fertile when compared with other 
parts of the continent situated so far north : it is, however, deficient 
in wood, and notwithstanding all the advantages held out to the 
inhabitants, there is no prospect that it will ever become profitable 
or useful, either to the Hudson's Bay Company or to the British 
government, in any way ; and least of all, " in the event of diffi- 
culties occurring between Great Britain and the United States of 
America," to provide for which seems to be one of the objects of the 
Company in fostering it. 

There is no reason to believe that the British government has 
made grants of any nature in the countries weSt of the Rocky 
Mountains, except that to the Hudson's Bay Company, which is 
merely a license to use those countries, in common with American 
citizens. The company has however allowed many settlements to 
be formed by- its retired servants; and has also encouraged associ- 
ations of British subjects, its own servants and others, to make es- 
tablishments for farming and grazing on a large scale. The earliest 
of these establishments were in the valley of the Willamet, south 
of the Columbia, where the British were soon outnumbered by the 
Americans, and now compose a very inconsiderable part of the 
population. The larger establishments, besides those at Fort Van- 
couver, are situated in the prairies about Bulfinch's Harbor, and 
around Nasqually, one of the Company's posts at the southern 
extremity of Puget's Sound, and near the head waters of the Cow- 
elitz River, midway between Nasqually and Vancouver. On what 
terms these establishments have been founded is not publicly 
known ; it may however be supposed that they would not have 
been undertaken without some assurance from the British Govern- 
ment, that the persons interested would be maintained and pro- 
tected, or in any event be indemnified for their expenses and labors. 

Of the American citizens in Oregon very little can be said as yet. 
They are all engaged in agriculture and other matters immediately 
connected with that branch of industry ; and according to the most 
recent accounts, have established for themselves a provisional system 
of government, according to the constitution of their native republic. 
With their neighbors of tlie Hudson's Bay Company, they seem to 
live on good terms, and will probably so continue as long as the 
Columbia River separates the territories occupied by the two parties. 
The Americans will have no objection to settlers from any quarter : 
but it may be doubted whether their attempts to extend their estab- 



1845.] AMERICAN CITIZENS IN CALIFORNIA. 403 

lishments and laws to the country north of that river will be 
quietly borne by the British ; and it is scarcely possible that the 
two populations should remain at peace much longer, without some 
change in the relations of their governments, with regard to that 
part of the world. 

In California, the number of xYmericans is large and is daily in- 
creasing, particularly in the region north of the Bay of San Francisco, 
formerly occupied by the Russians, who, in 1841, ceded all their 
property and claims to a company composed chiefly of citizens of 
the United States. The Americans seem to live on very good terms 
with the Mexicans, and to give themselves little concern about the 
government, of the unfriendly feelings of which towards them, they 
are occasionally reminded, by a decree for their expulsion. These 
decrees, the Governor of the Territory contents himself with pro- 
claiming, as it would be madness in him to attempt to enforce them, 
whilst he is obliged to depend almost entirely on the Americans, to 
suppress the incursions of the surrounding Indians. When it is also 
remembered, that Monterey is as far from the capital, and centre of ef- 
fective power in Mexico as Washington, it appears very improbable, 
if not impossible, that California should long remain in the hands of 
its present owners. Offers have more than once been made by the 
United States to purchase it, at prices which may be termed liberal ; 
but they have been always rejected by Mexico ; and similar propo- 
sitions have, it is said, been presented on the part of Great Britain. 
That the United States will quietly submit to the transfer of this 
territory to any other power, is not to be expected ; and the Mexi- 
can government should be well assured of support, before it ventures 
to consummate such an act. 

On reviewing dispassionately the agricultural, commercial, and 
other economical advantages of Oregon, there appears to be no 
reason founded on such considerations, which should render either 
of the powers claiming the possession of that country anxious to 
occupy it immediately, or unwilling to cede its own pretensions to 
others for a moderate compensation. But political considerations, 
among which are always to be reckoned not only those proceeding 
from just, patriotic, and philanthropic views, but also those which 
are the offspring of national and individual ambition, jealousy and 
hatred, ever have proved, and doubtless will in this case prove par- 
amount to the others. It is the unobjectionable, and indeed im- 
perative pohcy of the United States, to secure the possession of 
those territories, in order to provide places of resort and refresh- 



404 CONCLUSION. [1845. 

ment for their numerous vessels, engaged in the trade and fishery 
of the Pacific, particularly as there is a prospect that they may in 
time be excluded from the Sandwich Islands ; and also to prevent 
those territories from falling into the hands of any other power, 
which might direct against their western frontiers the hordes of 
Indians roving through the middle and \vesternmost divisions of the 
continents. Great Britain, on the other hand, can have no motive 
for opposing the occupation of Oregon by the United States, except 
that of checking their advancement, by excluding their vessels from 
the Pacific, and by maintaining an influence deleterious to their 
interests and safety, over the savages in their vicinity. 

Great Britain, at present, possesses the advantage, as regards the 
forcible and temporary occupation both of Oregon and California, 
where a few ships of war stationed in the Bay of San Francisco, 
the Columbia, and Puget's Sound, might doubtless control the Amer- 
ican settlements, all necessarily situated in the vicinity of the 
coast, and receiving nearly all their supplies of foreign articles by 
sea. But that she should, within any period which it is now pos- 
sible to foresee, furnish a population to the regions in question, 
there are certainly no grounds for supposing. Her provinces in 
America have no redundance of inhabitants ; and what induce- 
ments can be offered in good faith to her subjects in Europe, for 
undertaking a voyage of six months to the Columbia, or a voyage to 
Canada and a subsequent journey of four thousand miles through 
her wild and frozen Indian territories, so long as the West Indies, 
Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and, lastly — the United 
States — are open to them ? The difficulties experienced by 
American citizens, in their passage to Oregon, along the valleys of 
the Platte and the Lewis, great though they may be at present, sink 
into insignificance, when compared with those which British sub- 
jects must encounter, in proceeding to that country, by either of the 
routes above indicated : and the contrast becomes still stronger, 
when we compare the character and habits of Americans, trained 
from their childhood to struggle and provide against the hardships 
and privations incident to the settlement of a new country, with 
those of Europeans, accustomed only to a routine of labor the most 
simple, and the least calculated to nourish energies or to stimulate 
invention. 

END OF THE HISTORY, 



PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PIIOOES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



A. 

Original Account of the Voyaoe of the Greek Pilot Juan 
DE FucA along the North-West Coasts of America, in 
1592. 

A Note made hy vie, Michael Loch the elder, touching the Strait of Sea 
commonhj called Fretuni Anian, in the South Sea, through the North- 
West Passage q/'Meta Incognita.* 

When I was at Venice, in April, 1596, haply arrived there an 
old man, about sixty years of age, called, commonly, Juan de Fura, but 
named properly Apostolos Valerianus, of nation a Greek, born in Cepha- 
lonia, of profession a mariner, and an ancient pilot of ships. This man, 
being come lately out of Spain, arrived first at Leghorn, and went thence 
to Florence, where he found one John Douglas, an Englishman, a famous 
mariner, ready coming for Venice, to be pilot of a Venetian ship for 
England, in whose company they came both together to Venice. And 
John Douglas being acquainted with me before, he gave me knowledge 
of this Greek pilot, and brought him to my speech; and, in long talks 
and conference between us, in presence of John Douglas, this Greek 
pilot declared, in the Italian and Spanish languages, thus much in effect 
as followeth : — 

First, he said that he had been in the West Indies of Spain forty 
years, and had sailed to and from many places thereof, in the service of 
the Spaniards. 

Also, he said that he was in the Spanish ship which, in returning 
from the Islands Philippinas, towards Nova Spania, was robbed and 
taken at the Cape California by Captain Candish, Englishman, whereby 
he lost sixty thousand ducats of his own goods. 

Also, he said that he was pilot of three small ships which the viceroy 
of Blexieo sent from Mexico, armed with one hundred men, under a cap- 
tain, Spaniards, to discover the Straits of Anian, along the coast of the 
South Sea, and to fortify in that strait, to resist the passage and proceed- 
ings of the English nation, which were feared to pass through those 

* Extracted from the Pilgrims of SDmuel Purchas, vol. iii. p. 849. The orthogra- 
pliy of Uie Kiiglish ia modernized. Tlio letters inserted are, however, given in tlieir 
original lingua Franca. See p. tiff of the History. 



408 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [A. 

Straits into the South, Sea ; and that, by reason of a mutiny which hap- 
pened among the soldiers for the misconduct of their captain, that voyage 
was overthrown, and the ship returned from California to Nova Spania, 
without any thing done in that voyage ; and that, after their return, the 
captain was at 3Iexico punished by justice. 

Also, he said that, shortly after the said voyage was so ill ended, the 
said viceroy of Mexico sent him out again, in 1592, with a small caravel 
and a pinnace, armed with mariners only, to follow the said voyage for 
the discovery of the Straits of Anion, and the passage thereof into the 
sea, which they call the North Sea, which is our north-west sea ; and that 
he followed his course, in that voyage, west and north-west in the South 
Sea, all along the coast of Nova Spania, and California, and the Indies, 
now called North America, (all which voyage he signified to me in a great 
map, and a sea card of mine own, which I laid before him,) until he came 
to the latitude of 47 degrees; and that, there finding that the land trended 
north and north-east, with a broad inlet of sea, between 47 and 48 degrees 
of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing therein more than twenty days, 
and found that land trending still sometime north-west, and north-east, and 
north, and also east and south-eastward, and very much broader sea than 
was at the said entrance, and that he passed by divers islands in that sail- 
ing; and that, at the entrance of this said strait, there is, on the north- 
west coast thereof, a great headland or island, with an exceeding high 
pinnacle, or spired rock, like a pillar, thereupon. 

Also, he said that he went on land in divers places, and that he saw 
some people on land clad in beasts' skins ; and that the land is very fruit- 
ful, and rich of gold, silver, pearls, and other things, like Nova Spania. 

And also, he said that he being entered thus far into the said strait, 
and being come into the North Sea already, and finding the sea wide 
enough every where, and to be about thirty or forty leagues wide in the 
mouth of the straits where he entered, he thought he had now well dis- 
charged his office ; and that, not being armed to resist the force of the 
savage people that might happen, he therefore set sail, and returned home- 
wards again towards Nova Spania, where he arrived at Acapulco, anno 
1592, hoping to be rewarded by the viceroy for this service done in the 
said voyage. 

Also, he said that, after coming to Mexico, he was greatly welcomed 
by the viceroy, and had promises of great reward ; but that, having sued 
there two years, and obtained nothing to his content, the viceroy told him 
that he should be rewarded in Spain, of the king himself, very greatly, 
and willed him, therefore, to go to Spain, which voyage he did perform. 

Also, he said that, when he was come into Spain, he was welcomed 
there at the king's court; but, after long suit there, also, he could. not get 
any reward there to his content; and therefore, at length, he stole away 
out of Spain, and came into Italy, to go home again and live among his 
own kindred and countrymen, he being very old. 

Also, he said that he thought the cause of his ill reward had of the 
Spaniards, to be for that they did understand very well that the English 
nation had now given over all their voyages for discovery of the north- 
west passage ; wherefore they need not fear them any more to come that 
way into the South Sea, and therefore they needed not his service therein 
any more. 

Also, he said that, understanding the noble mind of the queen of 



A.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 409 

England, and of her wars against the Spaniards, and hoping that her 
majesty would do him justice for liis goods lost by Captain Candish, he 
would be content to go into England, and serve her majesty in that voyage 
for the discovery perfectly of the north-west passage into the South Sea, 
if she would furnish him with only one ship of forty tons' burden, and a 
pinnace, and that he would perform it in thirty days' time, from one end 
to the other of the strait ; and he willed me so to write to England. 

And, upon conference had twice with the said Greek pilot, I did write 
thereof, accordingly, to England, unto the right honorable the old Lord 
Treasurer Cecil, and to Sir Walter Raleigh, and to Master Richard Hak- 
luyt, that famous cosmographer, certifying them hereof. And I prayed 
them to disburse one hundred pounds, to bring the said Greek pilot into 
England with myself, for that my own purse would not stretch so wide at 
that time. And I had answer that this action was well liked and greatly 
desired in England ; but the money was not ready, and therefore this 
action died at that time, though the said Greek pilot, perchance, liveth 
still in his own country, in Crphalonia, towards which place he went 
within a fortnight after this conference had at Venice. 

And, in the mean time, while I followed my own business in Venice, 
being in a lawsuit against the Company of Merchants of Turkey, to re- 
cover my pension due for being their consul at 'Aleppo, which they held 
from me wrongfully, and when I was in readiness to return to England, 
I thought I should be able of mv own purse to take with me the said 
Greek pilot; and therefore I wrote unto him from Venice a letter, dated 
July, 159G, which is copied here under : — 

* " Al Mag"- Sig"* Capitan Juan de Fuca, Piloto de India, amigo mio 
char™' en Zefalonia. 

" MUY HONRADO SeNNOR, 

" Siendo yo para buelverme en Inglatierra dentre de pocas 

mezes, y accuerdandome de lo trattado entrc my y V. M. en Venesia 

sobre el viagio de las Indias, me ha parescido bien de scrivir esta carta 

a V. M. para que se tengais animo de andar con migo, puedais escribirme 

presto en que maniera quereis consertaros. Y puedais embiarmi vuestra 

carta con esta nao Ingles, que sta al Zante (sino hallais otra coiuntura 

raeior) con el sobrescritto que diga en casa del Sennor Eleazar Hyc- 

nian, mercader Ingles, al tragetto de San Tomas en Venisia. Y Dios 

guarde la persona de V. M. Fecha en Venesia al primer dia de Julio, 

1596 annos. ,, a • j tt- t\t 

" Amigo de V. M., ., ,f j t j » 

° ' ' Michael Lock, Ingles. 



* To the Magnificent Captain Juan de Fuca, Pilot of the Indies, my most dear friend 

in Cephalonia. 

INloST HoNORKD SiR, 

Being about to return to England in a fow months, and recollecting what 
passed between you and myself, at Venice, respecting the vo3-age to the Indies, I 
have thought proper to write you this letter, so that, if you have a mind to go with 
me, you can write me word directly how you wisli to arrange. You may send me your 
letter by this English vessel, which is at Z;inte, (if you should find no better op- 
portunity,) directed to the care of Mr. Eleazer liyckman, an English merchant, St 
Thomas Street, Venice. God preserve you, sir. 

Your friend, 

MicH.^.EL Lock, nf England. 
Ve.vice, July 1st, 1596. 50 



410 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [A, 

And I sent the said letter from Venice to Zante in the ship Cherubin ; 
and, shortly after, I sent a copy thereof in the ship Minion, and also a 
third copy thereof by Manea Orlando, patron de nave Venetian. And unto 
my said letters he wrote me answer to Venice by one letter, which came 
not to my hands, and also by another letter, which came to my hands, 
which is copied here under : — 

* " Al 111"""* Sig°"'- Michael Lock, Ingles, in casa del Sig"'- Lasaro, merca- 

der Ingles, al tragetto de San Tomas en Venesia. 

"MuY Illustre Sig""-, 

" La carta de V. M. recevi a 20 dias del mese di Settembre, 
por loqual veo loche V. M. me manda. lo tengho animo de complir loche 
tengo promettido a V. M. y no solo yo, mas tengo vinte hombres para 
lievar con migo, porche son hombres vaglientes; y assi estoi esperando 
por otra carta che avise a V. M. parache me embiais los dinieros die tengo 
escritto a V. M. Porche bien save V. M. como io vine pover, porque me 
glievo Captain Candis mas de sessenta mille ducados, como V. M. bien 
save; embiandome lo dicho, ire a servir a V. M. con todos mis com- 
pagneros. I no spero otra cosa mas de la voluntad e carta de V. M. con 
tanto nostro Sig"''- Dios guarda la illustre persona de V. M. muchos annos. 
De Ceffidonia a 34 de Settembre del 1596. 

" Amigo y servitor de V. M., 

" Juan Fuca." 

And the said letter came into my hands in Venice, the 16th day of 
November, 1596; but my lawsuit with the Company of Turkey was not 
ended, by reason of Sir John Spenser's suit, made in England, at the 
queen's court, to the contrary, seeking only to have his money discharged 
which I had attached in Venice for my said pension, and thereby my own 
purse was not yet ready for the Greek pilot. 

And, nevertheless, hoping that my said suit would have shortly a good 
end, I wrote another letter to this Greek pilot from Venice, dated the 20th 
of November, 1596, which came not to his hands, and also another letter, 
dated the 24th of January, 1596, which came to his hands. And thereof 
he wrote me answer, dated the 28th of May, 1597, which I received the 
1st of August, 1597, by Thomas Norden, an English merchant, yet living 
in London, wherein he promised still to go with me unto England, to 
perform the said voyage for discovery of the north-west passage into the 
South Sea, if I would send him money for his charges, according to his 

* To the Illustrious Michael Lock, Engrlisliman, at the liouse of Mr. Lazaro, English 

merchant, in St. Thomas Street, Venice. 

Most Illustrious Sir, 

Your letter was received b}' me on the 20th of September, by which I 
am informed of what you communicate. I have a mind to comply with my promise 
to yon, and liave not only myself, but twenty men, brave men, too, whom I can 
carry with me; so I am waiting for an answer to another letter which I wrote you, 
about the money which I asked you to send me. For you know well, sir, how I be- 
came poor in consequence of Captain Candish's having taken from me more than 
sixty thousand ducats, as you well know. If you will send me what I asked, I will 
go with you, as well as nil my companions. I ask no more from your kindness, as 
shown by your letter. God preserve you, most illustrious sir, for many j'ears. 

Your friend and servant, 

Juan Fuca. 
Cephalonia, September 2-Uh, 1506. 



B.] rROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 411 

former writing, without whicli money he said he could not go, for that as 
he was undone utterly when he was in the ship Santa Anna, wiiich came 
from China, and was ro!)l)ed at California. And yet again, afterward, I 
wrote him another letter iVoin Venice, whereunto he wrote nie answer by 
a letter written in his Greek language, dated the 20th of October, 1598, 
the which I have still by me, wherem he promiseth still to go with me 
into England, and perform the said voyage of discovery of the north-west 
passage into the South Sea by the said straits, which he calleth the Strait 
of Nova Spania, which he saith is but thirty days' voyage in the straits, if 
I will send him the money formerly written for his charges; the which 
money I could not yet send him, for that I had not yet recovered my pen- 
sion owing me by the Company of Turkey aforesaid; and so, of long time, 
I stayed any further proceeding with him in this matter. 

And yet, lastly, wiien I myself was at Zante, in the month of June, 
1G02, minding to pass from thence for England by sea, for that 1 had then 
recovered a little money from the Company of Turkey, by an order of the 
lords of the Privy Council of England, I wrote another letter to this Greek 
pilot, to Cephalonia, and required him to come to me to Zante, and go 
with me into England, but I had no answer thereof from him; for that, 
as I heard afterward at Zante, he was then dead, or very likely to die of 
great sickness. Whereupon, I returned myself, by sea, from Zante to 
Venice, and from thence I went, by land, through France, into England, 
where I arrived at Christmas, anno 1G02, safely, I thank God, after my 
absence from thence ten years' time, with great troubles had for the Com- 
pany of Turkey's business, which hath cost me a great sum of money, 
for the which I am not yet satisfied of them. 



B. 

Furs and the Fur Trade. 

Fur, strictly speaking, is the soft, fine hair which forms the natural 
clothing of certain animals, particularly of those inhabiting cold countries. 
In commerce, however, the word is understood to mean the skin of the 
animal, with the hair attached, either before or after, but generally after, 
it has been rendered soft and pliable, by a peculiar process, called dress- 
ing. The undressed skins are commoidy called peltry: h\it fur and 
peltry are employed as synonymous terms ; and the word fur, in com- 
merce, is generally to be understood as peltry. The skins of seals, bears, 
wolves, lions, leopards, buffaloes, &,c., are also placed under the denomi- 
nation o( furs, in commerce. 

Skins must have formed the first clothing of man in cold countries ; 
and, at the present day, they constitute the whole or the greater part of 
the dress of many millions of individuals. For this purpose, the skin, 
with or without the fur, is employed as cloth would be; or the fur alone 
is converted by art into the peculiar substance called fdt, of which hats 
are made. 



412 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [B, 

Furs differ in value, according to the fineness, the length, the thick- 
ness, and the color, of their hair. The most precious is that of the 
ermine, a species of weasel; it is thick, soft, fine, and of dazzling white- 
ness, except the tip of the tail, which is of a glossy black color, and is 
used to form spots on the skin. Of great value, also, are the skins of the 
marten, the sable, the fiery fox, the silver fox, and the black fox ; after 
■which come those of the sea otter, the beaver, the seal, and — though fiir 
inferior to the others — of the muskrat, the raccoon, the fox, the weasel, 
&c. Of these, the ermine is, as before said, the most precious ; the 
muskrat is that of which the greatest quantity is collected ; while the 
aggregate value of the beaver skins annually consumed among civilized 
nations is greater than that of all the other furs together. 

The finer furs are principally used in Russia, Turkey, and China, — 
in the latter country especially, where they form important portions of the 
dress of every rich, noble, or ostentatious person. In Europe, and in the 
United States, furs are also much worn in the shape of caps, muffs, and 
trimmings. The greatest consumption of the inferior furs is in the man- 
ufacture of hats, which is of comparatively modern date, and, as well as 
the use of those articles, is confined almost entirely to Europe and 
America. The furs mostly used for this purpose are those of the beaver, 
the otter, the nutria, (an animal resembling the beaver, found in Patago- 
nia,) and the muskrat; but the greater number of hats are composed 
chiefly of wool, with or without a slight covering of fur. 

Nearly all the furs now brought into commerce are procured from the 
countries north of the 40th parallel of north latitude, through the agency 
of the British Hudson's Bay Company, or of the Russian American 
Company, or by various private associations and individuals in the United 
States. Of those obtained in the Russian dominions, some are carried 
over land to China, others also over land to Europe, and the remainder by 
sea to Europe. Those found in the territories of the United States are 
nearly all carried to New York, from which portions are sent to London 
or to Canton. The furs collected in the parts of America possessed or 
claimed by Great Britain, are mostly shipped for London, either at Mont- 
real, or at York Factory on Hudson's Bay, or at Fort Vancouver, at the 
head of navigation of the Columbia River. The southern hemisphere 
supplies scarcely any furs, except those of the nutria, of which consid- 
erable quantities are brought from Buenos Ayres to New York or to 
London. London is undoubtedly the most extensive mart for furs in the 
world, and New York is probably the second; of the others, the princi- 
pal are Leipsic, Nijney-Novogorod on the VVolga, Kiakta on the boun- 
dary line between Russia and China, and Canton. Of the value of the 
furs thus annually brought into trade, it is impossible to form an exact 
estimate. According to a rough calculation, the amount received by the 
first collectors, for the skins in their undressed state, is about three mil- 
lions of dollars; but they afterwards pass through many hands, so that the 
price is much enhanced before they reach the actual consumer. 

The fur trade has been, hitherto, very profitable to those engaged in it; 
but it is now, from a variety of causes, declining every where. The in- 
crease in the number of persons employed in the pursuit, and the spread 
of civilized population over the countries from which the furs are chiefly 
procured, are rapidly diminishing the number of the animals; so that, in 
many countries in which they formerly abounded, not one can be obtained 



C] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 413 

at the present day. This diminution in the amount of the article offered 
has not, however, increased the jjrice ; as other articles, composed of silk, 
wool, or cotton, are substituted for furs, with advantage, both as to com- 
fort and cheapness. 

For particulars with regard to the manner in which the fur trade of the 
northern parts of America is conducted, see the accounts of the Russian 
American Company's establisiuncnts and system, in the Geographical 
Sketch, and in chap. xii. of the History, and the view of the Hudson's 
Bay Company's proceedings, in chap, xviii. Respecting the furs them- 
selves, minute information may be derived from an article on the subject 
by Mr. Aiken, in the Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement 
of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, published at London in 1830, as 
also from a similar article, by Professor Silliman, in the American Jour- 
nal of Science and Art for i\pril, 1834, and from the article on furs in 
McCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce. 



c. 

Correspondence between the Spanish Commandant and Com- 
missioner AT Nootka Sound and the Masters of the 
American trading Vessels Columbia and Hope, respecting 
the Occurrences at that Place in the Summer of 1789.* 

Translation of thr Letter from the Spanish Commandant to Captains 
Robert Gray and Joseph Ingraham. 

Nootka, Jlugust 2d, 1792. 
In order to satisfy the court of England, as is just, for the injury, dam- 
ages, and usurpation, which it conceives itself to have sustained at this 
port, in the year 1789, I have to request of you, gentlemen, the favor to 
inform me, with that sincerity which distinguishes you, and which is 
conformable with truth and honor, for what reason Don Esteban .lose 
Martinez seized the vessels of Colnett, [called] the Ipliigenia and the 
North-West America? What establishment or building had Mr. Meares 
on the arrival of the Spaniards'? What territories are those which he 
says that he purchased from Maquinna, Yuquiniarri, or other chief of 
these tribes 1 With what objects were the crew of the North-West 
America transferred to the Columbia, and ninety-six skins placed on 
hoard that ship? Finally, what was the whole- amount of skins carried 
by you to China, and to whom did they belong? 

Your most obedient and assured servant, 

Juan Francisco i>k la Bodega y Q,uadra. 

* The letter of Grav and Ingraham is copied from ln<rraham's Journal of his voyarje 
in the Hope, preserved, in nianuscri])!, in the library of the Department of State at 
Washington. The translation of (Quadra's letter is made from the origin.al in 
Spanish, which is attached by a wafer to the journal. A synopsis of the letter of 
Gray and Inirraham, which is, in every respect, incorrect, may be found in Vancou- 
ver's Journal, vol. i. p. 389. See p. 212 of this History. 



414 PKOOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [C. 

Answer of Captains Gray and Ingraliam to Don Juan Francisco de la 
Bodega y Quadra.* 

NooTKA Sound, August 3d, 1792. 

Sir, 

Your esteemed favor was handed to us yesterday, requesting from 
us information relative to the transactions between tlie English and Span- 
iards in this sound, in the year 1789, whicli we will do with great pleasure, 
and impartially, as you request. 

On the 5th of May, 1789, when Don Estevan Jose Martinez arrived in 
Friendly Cove, he found riding at anchor there the Iphigenia only ; the 
ship Columbia being at Malnvhinna, five miles up the sound. The sloop 
Washington and North-West America (schooner) were on a cruise. This 
information is necessary in order to regulate the sequel of the present. 
After the usual ceremonies of meeting were over, Don Martinez requested 
the papers of each vessel, and demanded why they were at anchor in 
Nootka Sound, alleging it belonged to his Catholic majesty. Captain 
Viana, who passed as commander of the Iphigenia, answered, they had 
put in, being in distress, having but little provisions, and in great want of 
every necessary, such as cables, anchors, rigging, sails, &c. ; that they 
were in daily expectation of the arrival of Captain Meares from Macao, 
to supply them, when they should depart. Captain Meares was expected 
to return in the same vessel he sailed in from hence in the year 1788, 
which Wcis under the Portuguese colors, and had a Portuguese captain on 
board : this vessel, with the Iphigenia, were said to belong to one Cravalia, 
or Cavallo, a merchant of Macao, in whose name the Iphigenia's papers 
were made out. Seeing the Iphigenia was in such want, Don Martinez 
gave them a temporary assistance, by supplying them with such articles 
as they were most in want, till the vessel before mentioned should arrive. 
At this time there was not the least suspicion of any misunderstanding or 
disturbance among us, as Don Martinez was apparently satisfied with the 
answers each vessel had given to his request. 

However, on the 10th of May, the San Carlos, Captain Arrow, 
[Haro,] arrived. The same day the American officers came to Uquot, or 
Friendly Cove, to welcome them in; and the next morning, the 11th of 
May, Don Martinez captured the Iphigenia, and his reason, as we under- 
stand, was, that, in their Portuguese instructions, they had orders to cap- 
ture any English, Spanish, or Russian, subjects they met on the north- 
west coast of America. This, at the time, seemed improbable, as she 
was a vessel of small force ; and it was afterwards found to have been a 
mistake, owing to their want of a perfect knowledge of the Portuguese 
language. However, after the vessel was taken, the officers and seamen 
were divided, some on board the Princesa, and some on board the San 
Carlos, where they were treated with all imaginable kindness, and every 
attention paid them. 

* Reference is frequently made to this letter in the 8t.h and 11th chapters of the 
precedinsf History. A synopsis of its contents may be found in the 10th chapter of 
Vancouver's account of Ills expedition, on comparing which with the letter, it will 
be seen that tlie evidence of the American captains is garbled and distorted in the 
most imworthy manner in the synopsis, not only by suppressions, but even by direct 
falsifications. To show this fully, it would be necessary to insert the whole of Van- 
couver's synopsis; the assertion, however, is sufficiently proved by the few notes 
which follow. 



C] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 415 

* On the 24th of May, the above-mentioned mistake being discovered, 
the Iphigenia was returned again, and the Portuguese flag hoisted on 
board her : the same day. Captain Douglas, with the Portuguese captain 
and seamen, repaired on board. The Iphigenia, while in possession of 
the Spaniards, from being a wreck was put in complete order for sea, 
being calked, rigging and sails repaired, anchors and cables sent from the 
Princesa, &/C. On the 2Gth, Don Martinez supplied them with every kind 
of provisions they were in need of, for which Captain Douglas gave him 
bills on Cravalia, the before-mentioned merchant of Macao. On the 3lst, 
the Iphigenia sailed, and was saluted by the Spanish fort; and the com- 
modore accompanied them out of the harbor, giving every assistance with 
boats, &c. When Captain Douglas took his leave of the commodore, he 
declared he should ever entertain a sense of Don Martinez's kindness, 
deeming his conduct relative to the vessel no more than his duty as a 
king's officer. Upon the whole, we both believe the Iphigenia's being 
detained was of infinite service to those who were concerned in her. 
This must be plain to every one who will consider the situation of the 
vessel when the Princesa arrived, and the advantages reaped from the 
supplies and assistance of the Spaniards. The detention, if it may be 
called so, could be no detriment ; for, had nothing taken place, she must 
have remained two months longer at least, having, as has already been 
mentioned, put into port, being in distress. Of course they could not 
have sailed till supplies arrived, which was not till July, as will appear in 
the sequel : whereas, being early fitted, as above mentioned, she sailed on 
the coast northward of Nootka Sound, and, there being no other vessel there, 
they collected upwards of seven hundred sea otter skins; which has been 
often represented to us by Captain Douglas and his officers, after our 
arrival in China. This may suffice for the transactions relative to the 
Iphigenia. Before Captain Douglas sailed, he gave Don Estevan Marti- 
nez a letter to Mr. Funter, master of the schooner North-West America, 
telling him, from Captain Meares's not arriving at the appointed time, there 
was great reason to fear the vessel he sailed from Nootka in had never 
reached China, (she being in bad condition when she sailed from this 
place;) therefore, as he, Mr. Funter, must, on his arrival, be destitute of 
every necessary, he was at liberty to conduct as he thought most condu- 
cive to the interests of his employers. We shall make mention of this 
vessel again hereafter. 

Interim, we observe your wish to be acquainted what house or estab- 
lishment Mr. Meares had at the time the Spaniards arrived here. We 
answer in a word. None. On the arrival of the Columbia, in the year 
1TS8, there was a house, or rather a hut, consisting of rough posts, cov- 
ered with boards, made by the Indians ; but this Captain Douglas pulled 
to pieces, prior to his sailing for the Sandwich Islands, the same year. 
The boards he took on board the Iphigenia, and the roof he gave to 
Captain Kendrick, which was cut up and used as firewood on board the 
Columbia; so that, on the arrival of Don Estevan J. Martinez, there was 

* Of the whole of this paratrmph, all that is said hy Vancouver is, "The vessel 
and cargo were liberated, and Martinez supplied the Iphigenia's wants from the 
Princesa, enabling her, by so doing, to prosecute her voyage without waiting for the 
return of Mr. Mcares." The extremity of distress to which the Iphigenia was re- 
duced on her arrival at Nootka, the seven hundred sea otter skins, and the other ad- 
vantages derived by her owners from the supplies furnished by the Spanish command- 
ant, are carefully kept out of sight. 



416 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [C. 

no vestige of any house remaining. As to the land Mr. Meares said he 
purchased of Maquinna or any otiier chief, we cannot say further than we 
never heard of any ; although we remained among these people nine 
months, and could converse with them perfectly well. Besides this, we 
have asked Maquinna and other chiefs, since our late arrival, if Captain 
Meares ever purchased any land in Nootka Sound; they answered, No; 
that Captain Kendrick was the only man to whom they had ever sold 
any And. 

On the 8th of June, the schooner North-West America arrived, and 
the next day the Spaniards took possession of her. Don E. J. Martinez 
had an account taken of the property on board, particularly of the skins, 
which he said should be given to the officers and seamen, that they might 
be sure of their wages. On the ICth of June, the sloop Princess Royal 
arrived from Macao, commanded by Thomas Hudson ; this vessel brought 
accounts of the safe arrival of Captain Meares, and that Captain Colnett 
was coming on the coast, commodore of the English trading vessels from 
Macao for the ensuing season, in a snow named the Argonaut. Mr. 
Hudson likewise brought accounts of the failure of Juan Cravalia & Co., 
merchants of Macao, before mentioned. What right the commodore had 
to detain the North-West America before, it is not for us to say ; but he 
always said it was an agreement* between Captain Douglas and himself; 
but, after the arrival of this vessel with the above news, he held her as 
security for the bills of exchange drawn on said Cravalia tSi. Co. in favor 
of his Catholic majesty : this we have heard him say. On the 2d of July, 
the Princess Royal sailed out of the port, having, to our knowledge, been 
treated by the commodore and his officers with every possible attention, 
which Captain Hudson himself seemed conscious of and grateful for. 
Prior to this vessel's sailing, the commodore gave to Mr. Punter all the 
skins he brought in in the North-West America, which were shipped on 
board the sloop Princess Royal by Mr. Funter, for his own account. In 
the evening of the 2d, a sail was descried from the Spanish fort. We 
were among the first that went out to meet them. It proved to be the 
Argonaut, Captain Colnett, before mentioned. The transactions of this 
vessel were such, that we can give the sense of them in a few words, that 
may answer eve.y purpose of the particulars, many of which are not im- 
mediately to the point, or tending to what we suppose you wish to know. 

It seems Captain Meares, with some other Englishmen at Macao, had 
concluded to erect a fort and settle a colony in Nootka Sound ; from what 
authority we cannot say. However, on the arrival of the Argonaut, we 
fieard Captain Colnett inform the Spanish connnodore he had come for 
that purpose, and to hoist the British flag, take formal possession, &c. : 

* The account of the seizure of the North-West America in the letter is thus 
presented by Vancouver : — 

''The North-West America is stated by these gentlemen to have arrived on the 
8th of June, and tliat, on tlie followinjr day, the Spaniards took possession of her. 
Ten days afterwards came tlie Princess Royal, commanded by Mr. Hudson, from 
Macao, who brought the news of the failure of the merchant at Macao, to whom the 
Iphiirenia and other vessels belonged; that Martinez assigned this as a reason flar 
his capturing the North-West America, (although she was seized before the arrival of 
the Princess Royal;) that he had detained her as an indemnification for the bills of 
exchange drawn on her owner in favor of his Catholic majesty." 

The parenthesis is here inserted obviously with the intention of creating the im- 
pression that Gray and Ino-raham had committed a falsehood or inconsistency in their 
evidence ; although this idea is specially contradicted in the letter. 



Cj PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 417 

to which the commodore answered, he had taken possession already in the 
name of his Catholic majesty ; on which Captain Colnett asked if he 
would be prevented from building a house in the port. The commodore, 
mistaking his meaning, answered him, he was at liberty to erect a tent, 
get wood and water, &c., after which he was at liberty to depart when he 
pleased ; but Captain Colnett said that was not what he wanted, but to 
build a block house, erect a fort, and settle a colony, for the crown of 
Great Britain. Don Estevan Jose Martinez answered, No; that, in doing 
that, he should violate the orders of liis king, run a risk of losing his 
commission, and not only that, but it would be relinquishing the Span- 
iards' claim to the coast: besides, Don Martinez observed, the vessels did 
not belong to the king, nor was he intrusted with powers to transact such 
public business. On which Captain Colnett answered, he Avas a king's 
officer; but Don Estevan replied, his being in the navy was of no conse- 
quence in the business. *In conversing on the subject, after the arrival 
of the vessel in port, it seems Captain Colnett insulted the commodore by 
threatening him, and drew his sword in the Princesa's cabin ; on which 
Don Martinez ordered the vessel to be seized. We did not see him draw 
his sword, but were informed of the circumstance by those whose veracity 
we had no reason to doubt. After seizing the Argonaut, the sloop Prin- 
cess Royal arrived a second time; and, as she belonged to the same com- 
pany, the commodore took possession of her also. With respect to the 
treatment of the prisoners, although we have not perused Mr. Meares's 
publication, we presume none of them will be backward in confessing 
that Don E. J. Martinez always treated them very kindly, and all his 
officers, consistent with the character of gentlemen. 

Having acquainted you with the principal part of the business, agree- 
able to request, one thing remains to answer, which is, of the captain, 
officers, and seamen, of the North-West America. You ask if we car- 
ried them to China. We did, and with them one hundred sea otter skins, 
the value of which, we judge, independent of freight, was four thousand 
eight hundred and seventy-five dollars; these were delivered to Mr. 
Meares, and were, we suppose, his property. We sincerely hope, sir, 
when things are represented with truth, it will rescue our friend Don 
Estevan J. Martinez from censure; at least, that he may not be deemed 
an impostor and a pirate, which many, from only hearing one part of the 
story, supposed he was. As to the treatment of the Americans by Don 
Estevan, we have ever testified it in terms due to such hospitality, and 
are happy again to have it in our power to do what we deem justice to his 
conduct. While speaking of others of your nation, we can never be un- 
mindful of you. Your kind reception and treatment of us has made an 
impression that will not be easily erased ; and we hope you will bear in 
mind how very sincerely we are, sir, your most humble servants, 

Robert Gray, 
Joseph Ingraham. 

* Vancouver here writes, — using the first person, as if copying the words of the 
American captains, — " In conversation afterwards on this subject, as we were in- 
formed, (say these gentlemen,) — for we were not present during tliis transaction, — 
some dispute arose in the Princesa's cabin; on which Don Martinez orflered the Ar- 
gonaut to be seized. Soon after this the Princess Royal returned," &c. ; the rumor 
that " Colnett insulted the commodore by threatening him, and drew his sword in the 
Princesa's cabin" beino- omitted. 

53° 



418 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. \jB. 



D. 



Official Documents relative to the Dispute between Great 
Britain and Spain in 1790.* 

Message from the King of Great Britain to Parliament, 3Iay 5th, 1790. 

George R. 

His majesty has received information that two vessels, belonging 
to his majesty's subjects, and navigated under the British flag, and two 
others, of which the description is not hitherto sufficiently ascertained, 
have been captured at Nootka Sound, on the north-western coast of 
America, by an officer commanding two Spanish ships of war ; that the 
cargoes of the British vessels have been seized, and that their officers and 
crews have been sent as prisoners to a Spanish port. 

The capture of one of these vessels had before been notified by the 
ambassador of his Catholic majesty, by order of his court, who, at the 
same time, desired that measures might be taken for preventing his majes- 
ty's subjects from frequenting those coasts, which were alleged to have 
been previously occupied and frequented by the subjects of Spain. Com- 
plaints were also made of the fisheries carried on by his majesty's subjects 
in the seas adjoining to the Spanish continent, as being contrary to the 
rights of the crown of Spain. In consequence of this communication, a 
demand was immediately made, by his majesty's order, for adequate satis- 
faction, and for the restitution of the vessel, previous to any other dis- 
cussion. 

By the answer from the court of Spain, it appears that this vessel and 
her crew had been set at liberty by the viceroy of Mexico; but this is 
represented to have been done by him on the supposition that nothing but 
the ignorance of the rights of Spain encouraged the individuals of other 
nations to come to those coasts for the purpose of making establishments, 
or carrying on trade, and in conformity to his previous instructions, re- 
quiring him to show all possible regard to the British nation. 

No satisfaction is made or offered, and a direct claim is asserted by the 
court of Spain to the exclusive rights of sovereignty, navigation, and 
commerce, in the territories, coasts, and seas, in that part of the world. 

His majesty has now directed his minister at Madrid to make a fresh 
representation on this subject, and to claim such full and adequate satis- 
faction as the nature of the case evidently requires. And, under these 
circumstances, his majesty, having also received information that consid- 
erable armaments are carrying on in the ports of Spain, has judged it 
indispensably necessary to give orders for making such preparations as 
may put it in his majesty's power to act with vigor and effect in support 
of the honor of his crown and the interests of his people. And his 

* The following papers, with the exception of the last, are taken from the London 
Annual Register for 1790. The translations of the Spanish notes are evidently made 
with little care. See chap. ix. of this History. 



D.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 419 

majesty recommends it to his faithful Commons, on whose zeal and public 
spirit he has the most perfect reliance, to enable him to take such meas- 
ures, and to make such augmentation of his forces, as may be eventually 
necessary for this purpose. 

It is his majesty's earnest wish that the justice of his majesty's demands 
may insure, from the wisdom and equity of his Catholic majesty, the sat- 
isfaction which is so unquestionably due, and that this affair may be termi- 
nated in such a manner as to prevent any grounds of misunderstanding in 
future, and to continue and confirm that harmony and friendship which 
has so happily subsisted between the two courts, and which his majesty 
will always endeavor to maintain and improve, by all such means as are 
consistent with the dignity of his majesty's crown and the essential interests 
of his subjects. 

G. R. 

(2.) 

Declaration of the King of Spain to all the other Courts of Europe. 

Aranjuez, June 4th, 1790. 

The king, being apprized of the particulars laid before his ministers, 
on the 16th of May, by Mr. Merry, his Britannic majesty's minister, 
relative to the unexpected dispute between this court and Great Britain, 
as to the vessels captured in Port St. Lawrence, or Nootka Sound, on the 
coast of California, in the South Sea, has commanded the undersigned, 
his majesty's first secretary of state, to answer to the said minister of 
England, that he had the honor to make known personally, and in writing, 
to the said minister, upon the ISth of the same month, that his majesty 
at no time pretended to any rigiits in any ports, seas, or places, other than 
what belongs to his crown by the most solemn treaties, recognized by all 
nations, and more particularly with Great Britain, by a right founded on 
particular treaties, the uniform consent of both nations, and by an imme- 
morial, regular, and established possession; that his majesty is ready to 
enter upon every examination and discussion most likely to terminate the 
dispute in an amicable way, and is willing to enter into immediate con- 
ference with the new ambassador, and, if justice requires it, will certainly 
disapprove of the conduct, and punish his subjects, if they have gone 
beyond their powers. This offer and satisfaction will, it is hoped, serve 
as an example to the court of London to do as much on its part. 

As the two courts of London and Madrid have not yet received proper 
and authenticated accounts and proofs of all that has really passed in 
these distant latitudes, a contradiction in the development of facts has by 
this means been occasioned. Even at this moment, the papers and min- 
utes made up by the viceroy of New Spain on this matter are not arrived. 
Posterior letters, indeed, say that the English vessel, the Argonaut, had 
not been seized and confiscated till legally condemned, and that the small 
vessel, called the Princess Royal, which had afterwards arrived, was not 
seized or confiscated, but that, on the contrary, full restitution was made 
by the viceroy, and an obligation only taken from the captain to pay the 
price of the vessel, if she was declared a lawful prize; and on the precise 
same terms he had liberated a Portuguese vessel belonging to Macao, and 
two American vessels. These particulars will be more explicitly proved 
and elucidated on the arrival of the necessary papers. 



420 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. fj}. 

The first time that our ambassador made a public notification of this 
matter to the ministry at London, on the 10th of February last, many of 
the circumstances that are now certain were then doubtful. The rights 
and immemorial possession of Spain to that coast and ports, as well as 
several other titles proper to be taken into view in a pacific negotiation, 
were not quite certain ; and, if the court of London had made an ami- 
cable return to the complaints made by his majesty relative to those mer- 
chants whom Spain regards as usurpers and the violators of treaties, and 
had showed any desire to terminate the affair by an amicable accommo- 
dation, a great deal of unnecessary expense might have been saved. The 
high and menacing tone and manner in which the answer of the British 
minister was couched, at a time when no certain information of the par- 
ticulars had arrived, made the Spanish cabinet entertain some suspicions 
that it was made not so much for the purpose of the dispute in question, 
as a pretext to break entirely with our court ; for which reason it was 
thought necessary to take some precautions relative to the subject. 

On a late occasion, a complaint was made to the court of Russia, as 
to some similar points relative to the navigation of the South Sea. A 
candid answer being returned by that court, the affair was terminated 
without the least disagreement. Indeed, it may be asserted with truth, 
that the manner, much more than the substance, has produced the dis- 
putes that have taken place on this head with Great Britain. 

Nevertheless, the king does deny — what the enemies to peace have 
industriously circulated — that Spain extends pretensions and rights of 
sovereignty over the whole of the South Sea as far as China. When the 
words are made use of, " Li the name of the king, his sovereignty, navi- 
gation, and exclusive commerce to the continent and islands of the South 
Sea," it is the manner in which Spain, in speaking of the Indies, has 
always used these words; that is to say, to the continent, islands, and 
seas, which belong to his majesty, so far as discoveries have been made 
and secured to him by treaties and immemorial possession, and uniformly 
acquiesced in, notwithstanding some infringements by individuals, who 
have been punished upon knowledge of their offences : and the king sets 
up no pretensions to any possessions, the right to which he cannot prove 
by irrefragable titles. 

Although Spain may not have establishments or colonies planted upon 
the coasts or in the ports in dispute, it does not follow that such coast or 
port does not belong to her. If this rule were to be followed, one nation 
might establish colonies on the coasts of another nation, in America, Asia, 
Africa, and Europe, by which means there would be no fixed boundaries 
— a circumstance evidently absurd. 

But, whatever may be the issue of the question of right, upon a ma- 
ture consideration of the claims of both parties, the result of the question 
of fact is, that the capture of the English vessels is repaired by the resti- 
tution that has been made, and the conduct of the viceroy : for, as to the 
qualification of such restitution, and whether the prize was lawful or not, 
tliat respects the question of right yet to be investigated ; that is to say, 
if it has been agreeably to, or in contradiction to, the treaties relative to 
the rights and possessions of Spain. Lastly, the king will readily enter 
into any plan by which future disputes on this subject may be obviated, 
that no reproach may be upon him as having refused any means of recon- 
ciliation, and for the establishment of a solid and permanent peace, not 



D.^ PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 421 

only between Spain and Great Britain, but also between all nations; for 
the accomplishment of which object, his majesty has made the greatest 
efforts in all the courts of Europe, which he certainly would not have 
done if he had any design to involve England and the other European 
powers in a calamitous and destructive war. 

El Conde de Florida Blanca. 



(3.) 

Memorial of the Court of Spain, presented hy Count de Florida Blanca, 

the Spanish Minister of State, to Mr. Fitzhcrbcrt, the British AmbaS' 

sador at Madrid. 

Madrid, June XZth, 1790. 

By every treaty upon record betwixt Spain and the other nations of 
Europe, for upwards of two centuries, an exclusive right of property, 
navigation, and commerce, to the Spanish West Indies, has been uniformly 
secured to Spain, England having always stood forth in a particular man- 
ner in support of such right. 

By article 8th of the treaty of Utrecht, (a treaty in which all the 
European nations may be said to have taken a part,) Spain and England 
profess to establish it as a fundamental principle of agreement, that the 
navigation and commerce of the West Indies, under the dominion of 
Spain, shall remain in the precise situation in which they stood in the 
reign of his Catholic majesty Charles II., and that that rule shall be invi- 
olably adhered to, and be incapable of infringement. 

After this maxim, the two powers stipulated that Spain should never 
grant liberty or permission to any nation to trade to, or introduce their 
merchandises into, the Spanish American dominions, nor to sell, cede, 
or give up, to any other nation its lands, dominions, or territories, or any 
part thereof On the contrary, and in order that its territories should be 
])reserved whole and entire, England offers to aid and assist the Spaniards 
in reestablishing the limits of their American dominions, and placing 
them in the exact situation they stood in at the time of his said Catholic 
majesty Charles IT., if, by accident, it shall be discovered that they have 
undergone any alteration to the prejudice of Spain, in whatever manner 
or pretext such alteration may have been brought about. 

The vast extent of the Spanish territories, navigation, and dominion, 
on the continent of America, isles and seas contiguous to the South Sea, 
are clearly laid down, and authenticated by a variety of documents, laws, 
and formal acts of possession, in the reign of King Charles II. It is also 
clearly ascertained, that, notwithstanding the repeated attempts made by 
adventurers and pirates on the Spanish coasts of the South Sea and adja- 
cent islands, Spain has still preserved her possessions entire, and opposed 
with success those usurpations, by constantly sending her ships and vessels 
to take possession of such settlements. By these measures and reiterated 
acts of possession, Spain has preserved her dominion, which she has ex- 
tended to the borders of the Russian establishments, in that part of the 
world. 

The viceroys of Peru and New Spain having been informed tliat these 
seas had been, for some years past, more frequented than formerly, 



422 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D, 

that smuggling had increased, that several usurpations prejudicial to 
Spain and the general tranquillity had been suffered to be made, they 
gave orders that the western coasts of Spanish America, and islands and 
seas adjacent, should be more frequently navigated and explored. 

They were also informed that several Russian vessels were upon the 
point of making commercial establishments upon that coast. At the time 
that Spain demonstrated to Russia the inconveniences attendant upon 
such encroachments, she entered upon the negotiation with Russia, upon 
the supposition that the Russian navigators of the Pacific Ocean had no 
orders to make establishments within the limits of Spanish America, of 
which the Spaniards were the first possessors, (limits situated within 
Prince William's Strait,) purposely to avoid all dissensions, and in order 
to maintain the harmony and amity which Spain wished to preserve. 

The court of Russia replied, it had already given orders that its sub- 
jects should make no settlements in places belonging to other powers, 
and that, if those orders had been violated, and any had been made in 
Spanish America, they desired the king would put a stop to them in a 
friendly manner. To this pacific language on the part of Russia, Spain 
observed that she could not be answerable for what her officers might do 
at that distance, whose general orders and instructions were, not to permit 
any settlements to be made by other nations on the continent of Spanish 
America. 

Though trespasses had been made by the English on some of the 
islands of those coasts, which had given rise to similar complaints having 
been made to the court of London, Spain did not know that the English 
had endeavored to make any settlements on the northern part of the 
Southern Ocean, till the commanding officer of a Spanish ship, in the 
usual tour of the coasts of California, found two American vessels in St. 
Laurence, or Nootka Harbor, where he was going for provisions and stores. 
These vessels he permitted to proceed on their voyage, it appearing, from 
their papers, that they were driven there by distress, and only came in 
to refit. 

He also found there the Iphigenia, from Macao, under Portuguese 
colors, which had a passport from the governor; and, though he came 
manifestly with a view to trade there, yet the Spanish admiral, when he 
saw his instructions, gave him leave to depart, upon his signing an en- 
gagement to pay the value of the vessel, should the government of Mexico 
declare it a lawful prize. 

With this vessel there came a second, ^vhich the admiral detained, 
and, a few days after, a third, named the Argonaut, from the above- 
mentioned place. The captain of this latter was an Englishman. He 
came not only to trade, but brought every thing with him proper to form 
a settlement there, and to fortify it. This, notwithstanding the remon- 
strances of the Spanish admiral, he persevered in, and was detained, to- 
gether with his vessel. 

After him came a fourth English vessel, named the Princess Royal, 
and evidently for the same purposes. She, likewise, was detained, and 
sent to Port St. Bias, where the pilot of the Argonaut made away with 
himself. 

The viceroy, on being informed of these particulars, gave orders that 
the captain and the vessels should be released, and that they should have 
leave to refit, without declaring them a lawful prize; and this he did, on 



D.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 423 

account of the ignorance of the proprietors, and the friendship which 
subsisted between the two courts ot London and Madrid. 

He also gave them leave to return to Macao with their cargo, after 
capitulating with them in the same manner as with the Portuguese cap- 
tain, and leaving the affair to be finally determined by the Count de 
Reviilagigedo, his successor, who also gave them their liberty. 

As soon as the court of Madrid had received an account of the 
detention of the first English vessel at Nootka Sound, and before that of 
the second arrived, it ordered its ambassador at London to make a report 
thereof to the English minister, which he did on the 10th of February 
last, and to require that the parties who had planned these expeditions 
should be punished, in order to deter others from making settlements on 
territories occupied and frequented by the Spaniards for a number of years. 

In the ambassador's memorial, mention was only made of the Spanish 
admiral that commanded the present armament, having visited Nootka 
Sound in 1774, though that harbor had been frequently visited, both 
before and since, with the usual forms of taking possession. These forms 
were repeated more particularly in the years 1755 and 1779, all along the 
coasts <is far as Prince William's Sound; and it was these acts that gave 
occasion to the memorial made by the court of Russia, as has been 
already noticed. 

The Spanish ambassador at London did not represent in this memo- 
rial at that time, that the right of Spain to these coasts was conformable 
to ancient boundaries, which had been guarantied by England at the 
treaty of Utrecht, in the reign of Charles II., deeming it to be unneces- 
sary ; as orders had been given, and vessels had actually been seized on 
those coasts, so far back as 1692. 

The answer that the English ministry gave, on the 26th of February, 
was, that they had not as yet been informed of the facts stated by the 
ambassador, and that the act of violence, mentioned in his memorial, 
necessarily suspended any discussion of the claims therein, till an adequate 
atonement had been made for a proceeding so injurious to Great Britain. 

In addition to this haucrhty language of the British minister, he fur- 
ther added, that the ship must in the first place be restored ; and that, 
with respect to any future stipulations, it would be necessary to wait for a 
more full detail of all the circumstances of this affair. 

The harsh and laconic style in which this answer was given, made the 
court of Madrid suspect that the king of Great Britain's ministers were 
forming other plans; and they were the more induced to think so, as 
tliere were reports that they were going to fit out two fleets, one for the 
Mediterranean and the other for the Baltic. This, of course, obliged 
Spain to increase the small squadron she was getting ready to exercise 
her marine. 

The court of Spain then ordered her ambassador at London to pre- 
sent a memorial to the British ministry, setting forth that, though the 
crown of Spain had an indubitable right to the continent, islands, harbors, 
and coasts, of that part of the world, founded on treaties and immemorial 
possession, yet, as the viceroy of Mexico had released the vessels that were 
detained, the king looked upon the affair as concluded, without entering 
into any disputes or discussions on the undoubted rights of Spain ; and, 
desiring to give a proof of his friendship for Great Britain, he should rest 
satisfied if she ordered that her subjects, in future, respected those rights. 



424 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. ^I^ 

As if Spain, in this answer, had laid claim to the empire of that 
ocean, though she only spoke of what belonged to her by treaties, and as 
if it had been so grievous an offence to terminate this affair by restitution 
of the only vessel which was then known to have been taken, it excited 
such clamor and agitation in the Parliament of England, that the most 
vio-orous preparations for war have been commenced; and those powers 
disinclined to peace charge Spain with designs contrary to her known 
principles of honor and probity, as well as to the tranquillity of Europe, 
which the Spanish monarch and his ministers have always had in view. 

While England was employed in making the greatest armaments and 
preparations, that court made answer to the Spanish ambassador, (upon 
tiie 5th of May,) that the acts of violence committed against the British 
flag " rendered it necessary for the sovereign to charge his minister at 
Madrid to renew the remonstrances, (being the answer of England 
already mentioned,) and to require that satisfaction which his majesty 
thought he had an indisputable right to demand." 

To this was added a declaration not to enter formally into the matter 
until a satisfactory answer was obtained; "and at the same time the 
memorial of Spain should not include in it the question of right; " which 
formed a most essential part of the discussion. 

The British administration offer, in the same answer, to take the 
most effectual and pacific measures, that the English subjects shall not 
act " against the just and acknowledged rights of Spain, but that they 
cannot at present accede to the pretensions of absolute sovereignty, com- 
merce, and navigation, which appeared to be the principal object of the 
memorials of the ambassador; and that the king of England considers it 
as a duty incumbent upon him to protect his subjects in the enjoyment of 
the right of continuing their fishery in the Pacific Ocean." 

If this pretension is found to trespass upon the ancient boundaries 
laid down in the reign of King Charles IL, and guarantied by England 
in the treaty of Utrecht, as Spain believes, it appears that that court will 
have good reason for disputing and opposing this claim ; and it is to be 
lioped that the equity of the British administration will suspend and 
restrict it accordingly. 

In consequence of the foregoing answer, the charge d'of aires from the 
court of London at Madrid insisted, in a memorial of the IGth of May, 
on restitution of the vessel detained at Nootka, and the property therein 
contained ; on an indemnification for the losses sustained, and on a repa- 
ration proportioned to the injury done to the English subjects trading 
under tlie British flag, and that they have an indisputable right to the 
enjoyment of a free and uninterrupted navigation, commerce, and fishery; 
and to the possession of such establishments as they should form with the 
consent of the natives of the country, not previously occupied by any of 
the European nations. 

An explicit and prompt answer was desired upon this head, in such 
ferms as might tend to calm the anxieties, and to maintain the friendship, 
subsisting between the two courts. 

The charge d'affaires having observed that a suspension of the 
Spanish armaments would contribute to tranquillity, upon the terms to 
be communicated by the British administration, an answer was made by 
the Spanish administration, that the king was sincerely inclined to disarm 
upon the principles of reciprocity, and proportioned to the circumstances 



D.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 425 

of the two courts; adding that the court of Spain was actuated by the 
most pacific intentions, and a desire to give every satisfaction and indem- 
nification, if justice was not on their side, provided England did as much 
if she was found to be in the wrong. 

This answer must convince all the courts of Europe that the conduct 
of the king and his administration is consonant to the invariable principles 
of justice, truth, and peace. 

El Conde de Florida Blanca. 



(4.) 

Letter from Count de Fernan Nunez, the Spanish Ambassador at Paris, 
to M. de Montmorin, the Secretary of the Foreign Department of 
France. 

Paris, June 16th, 1790. 
Sir, 

I have the honor to address you, with this, a faithful extract of 
all the transactions which have hitherto passed between my court and that 
of London, on the subject of the detention of two English vessels, which 
were seized in the Bay of St. Lawrence, or Nootka, situated in the 50th 
degree to the north of California, and which were afterwards taken to the 
port of St. Bias. 

You will observe by this relation, 

1. That, by the treaties, demarkations, takings of possession, and the 
most decided acts of sovereignty exercised by the Spaniards in these 
stations, from the reign of Charles IL, and authorized by that monarch in 
1692, the original vouchers for which shall be brought forward in the 
course of the negotiation, all the coast to the north of the Western Amer- 
ica, on the side of the South Sea, as far as beyond what is called Prince 
William's Sound, which is in the 61st degree, is acknowledged to belong 
exclusively to Spain. 

2. That the court of Russia, having been informed of this extent of 
our boundary, assured the king, my master, without the least delay, of 
the purity of its intentions in this respect, and added, " That it was 
extremely sorry that the repeated orders issued to prevent the subjects of 
Russia from violating, in the smallest degree, the territory belonging to 
another power, should have been disobeyed." 

3. That the state of the possessions and exclusive commerce on the 
sea-coast of the Southern Ocean, as it existed in the time of Charles IL, 
had been acknowledged and defined anew by all the nations of Europe, 
and more particularly by England, in the eighth article of the treaty 
of Utrecht. 

4. That, notwithstanding the just title he has to a preservation of his 
ancient rights, the king, my master, has approved of the conduct of the 
viceroy of Mexico, who, in consequence of his general orders and instruc- 
tions for the preservation of peace with every power, took upon himself to 
release the vessels seized in the port of Nootka, upon a supposition that 
the conduct of their captains was a consequence of their total ignorance 
with respect to the legitimacy of the rights of Spain on those coasts. 

It is in consequence of the desire of his Catholic majesty to pre- 
serve peace to himself, and to establish the general tranquillity of Europe, 

54 



426 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D. 

that lie has taken the steps you will observe in the said extract, and that 
he has commenced an amicable and direct negotiation with England, 
which he will finish with Mr. Fitzherbert, the new ambassador sent 
from that court to the court of Madrid. We are in hopes that the con- 
sequences of this negotiation will be favorable ; but, at the same time, we 
must employ all the necessary means to make it so. 

An immediate and exact accomplishment of the treaty signed at Paris, 
the loth of August, 1761, under the title of the Family Compact, becomes 
an indispensable preliminary to a successful negotiation. It is in conse- 
quence of the absolute necessity which Spain finds of having recourse to 
the succor of France, that the king, my master, orders me to demand 
expressly what France can do in the present circumstances to assist 
Spain, according to the mutual engagements stipulated by the treaties. 
His Catholic majesty desires that the armaments, as well as other proper 
measures to fulfil and realize these sacred engagements, be immediately 
put in execution. He charges me to add further, that the present state 
of this unforeseen business requires a very' speedy determination, and that 
the measures which the court of France shall take for his assistance, shall 
be so active, so clear, and so positive, as to prevent even the smallest 
ground for suspicion. Otherwise his most Christian majesty must not be 
surprised that Spain should seek other friends and different allies among 
all the powers of Europe, without excepting any one, upon whose assist- 
ance she can rely in case of need. The ties of blood and personal friend- 
ship which unite our two sovereigns, and particularly the reciprocal 
interest which exists between two nations united by nature, shall be 
respected in all new arrangements, as far as circumstances will permit. 

This, sir, is the positive demand which I am obliged to make, and in 
consequence of which I hope his most Christian majesty will immediately 
take such measures as shall seem most suitable, in the present circum- 
stances, to satisfy my master, in an object so interesting and important to 
the preservation of his legal rights, and the honor of his nation. 
I have the honor to be, &c.. 

El Conde de Fernan Nunez. 



(5.) 

Letter from Mr. Fitzherbert to Count de Florida Blanca. 

Madrid, [probably,] June \Qth, 1790. 
Sir, 

In compliance with your excellency's desire, I have now the 
honor to communicate to you, in writing, what I observed to you in the 
conversation we had the day before yesterday. 

The substance of these observations are briefly these : — 
The court of London is animated with the most sincere desire of 
terminating the difference that at present subsists between it and the 
court of Madrid, relative to the port of Nootka, and the adjacent lati- 
tudes, by a friendly negotiation; but as it is evident, upon the clearest 
principles of justice and reason, that an equal negotiation cannot be 
opened till matters are put in their original state, and as certain acts have 
been committed in the latitudes in question by vessels belonging to the 



D,] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 427 

royal marine of Spain, against several British vessels, without any re- 
prisals having been made, of any sort, on the part of Britain, that power is 
perfectly in the right to insist, as a preliminary condition, upon a prompt 
and suitable reparation for these acts of violence; and in consequence of 
this principle, the practice of nations has limited such right of reparation 
to three articles, viz., the restitution of the vessels — a full indemnification 
for the losses sustained by the parties injured — and, finally, satisfaction to 
the sovereign for the insult offered to his flag. So tiiat it is evident that 
the actual demands of my court, far from containing any thing to preju- 
dice the rights or the dignity of his Catholic majesty, amount to no more, 
in fiict, than what is constantly done by Great Britain herself, as well as 
every other maritime power, in similar circumstances. — Finally, as to the 
nature of the satisfaction which the court of London exacts on this occa- 
sion, and on which your excellency appears to desire some explanation, 1 
am authorized, sir, to assure you, that if his Catholic majesty consents to 
make a declaration in his name, bearing in substance that he had deter- 
mined to oflfer to his Britannic majesty a just and suitable satisfaction 
for the insult offered to his flag, — such offer, joined to a promise of 
making restitution of the vessels captured, and to indemnify the pro- 
prietors, under the conditions specified in the official letter of Mr. Merry 
on the 16th of May, will be regarded by his Britannic majesty as consti- 
tuting in itself the satisfaction demanded; and his said majesty will accept 
of it as such by a counter-declaration on his part. I have to add, that as 
it appears uncertain if the vessels the North-West, an American vessel, 
and the Iphigenia, had truly a right to enjoy the protection of the British 
flag, the king will with pleasure consent that an examination of this ques- 
tion, as well as that relative to the just amount of the losses sustained 
by his subjects, may be left to the determination of commissioners to 
be named by the two courts. 

Having thus recapitulated to your excellency the heads of what I 
observed to you in conversation, I flatter myself you will weigh the whole 
in your mind, with that spirit of equity and moderation which character- 
izes you, that I may be in a condition of sending to my court, as soon as 
possible, a satisfactory answer as to the point contained in the official 
paper sent to Mr. Merry, on the 4th of the month, and which, for the 
reasons I have mentioned, cannot be regarded by his Britannic majesty 
as fulfilling his just expectations. 

I have the honor to be, &-c., 

Alleyne Fitzherbert. 

(6.) 

Letter from Count de Florida Blanca to Mr. Fitzherbert. 

Madrid, June ISth, 1790. 

You will pardon me, sir, that I cannot give my assent to the principles 
laid down in your last letter; as Spain maintains, on the most solid 
grounds, that the detention of the vessels was made in a port, upon a 
coast, or in a bay, of Spanish America, the commerce and navigation of 
which belonged exclusively to Spain, by treaties with all nations, even 
England herself 



428 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [l>. 

The principles laid down cannot be adapted to the case. The 
vessels detained attempted to make an establishment at a port where 
they found a nation actually settled, the Spanish commander at Nootka 
having, previous to their detention, made the most amicable represen- 
tations to the aggressors to desist from their purpose. 

Your excellency will also permit me to lay before you, that it is not 
at all certain that the vessels detained navigated under the British flag, 
although they were English vessels ; there having been reason to believe 
that they navigated under the protection of Portuguese passports, fur 
nislied them by the governor of Macao as commercial vessels, and not 
belonging to the royal marine. Your excellency will add to these rea- 
sons, that, by the restitution of these vessels, their furniture and cargoes, 
or their value, in consequence of the resolution adopted by the viceroy of 
Mexico, which has been approved of by the king, for the sake of peace, 
every thing is placed in its original state, the object your excellency aims 
at — nothing remaining unsettled but the indemnification of losses, and 
satisfaction for the insult, which shall also be regulated when evidence 
shall be given what insult has been committed, which hitherto has not 
been sufficiently explained. 

However, that a quarrel may not arise about words, and that two 
nations friendly to each other may not be exposed to the calamities of 
war, I have to inform you, sir, by order of the king, that his majesty 
consents to make the declaration which your excellency proposes in your 
letter, and will offer to his Britannic majesty a just and suitable satisfac- 
tion for the insult offered to the honor of his flag, provided that to these 
are added either of the following explanations: 

1. That, in offering such satisfaction, the insult and the satisfaction 
shall be fully settled, both in form and substance, by a judgment to be 
pronounced by one of the kings of Europe, whom the king, my master, 
leaves wholly to the choice of his Britannic majesty; for it is sufficient to 
the Spanish monarch that a crowned head, from full information of the 
facts, shall decide as he thinks just. 

2. That, in oflTering a just and suitable satisfaction, care shall be 
taken that, in the progress of the negotiation to be opened, no facts be 
admitted as true but such as can be fully established by Great Britain 
with regard to the insult offered to her flag. 

3. That the said satisfaction shall be given on condition that no 
inference be drawn therefrom to affect the rights of Spain, nor of the 
right of exacting from Great Britain an equivalent satisfaction, if it shall 
be found, in the course of negotiation, that the king has a right to 
demand satisfaction, for the aggression and usurpation made on the 
Spanish territory, contrary to subsisting treaties. 

Your excellency will be pleased to make choice of either of these 
three explanations to the declaration your excellency proposes, or all the 
three together, and to point out any difficulty that occurs to you, that 
it may be obviated ; or any other mode that may tend to promote the 
peace which we desire to establish. 

I have the honor to be, &c.. 

El Conde de Florida Blanca. 



D.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 429 



(^■) 

Spanish Declaration, and British Counter-Declaration, exchanged at 
Madrid on the 2ith of July, 1790. 

DECLARATION. 

His Britannic majesty having complained of the capture of certain 
vessels belonging to his subjects in the port of Nootka, situated on the 
north-west coast of America, by an ofhcer in the service of the king, — the 
undersigned counsellor and principal secretary of state to his majesty, 
being thereto duly authorized, declares, in the name and by the order of 
his said majesty, that he is willing to give satisfaction to his Britannic 
majesty for tlie injury of which he has complained, fuily persuaded that 
his said Britannic majesty would act in the same manner towards the 
king, under similar circumstances ; and his majesty further engages to 
make full restitution of all the British vessels which were captured at 
Nootka, and to indemnify the parties interested in those vessels, for the 
losses which they shall have sustained, as soon as the amount thereof 
shall have been ascertained. 

It being understood that this declaration is not to preclude or preju- 
dice the ulterior discussion of any right which his majesty may claim to 
form an exclusive establishment at the port of Nootka. 

In witness whereof, I have signed this declaration, and sealed it with 
the seal of my arms. At Madrid, the 24th of July, 1T90. 

(l. s.) Signed, 

Le Comte de Florida Blanca. 

counter-declaration. 

His Catholic majesty having declared that he was willing to give 
satisfaction for the injury done to the king, by the capture of certain 
vessels belonging to his subjects, in the bay of Nootka, and the Count de 
Florida Blanca having signed, in the name and by the order of his Catho- 
lic majesty, a declaration to this effect, and by which his said majesty 
likewise engages to make full restitution of the vessels so captured, and 
to indemnify the parties interested in those vessels for the losses they shall 
have sustained, — the undersigned ambassador extraordinary and plenipo- 
tentiary of his majesty to the Catholic king, being thereto duly and 
expressly authorized, accepts the said declaration in the name of the king, 
and declares that his majesty will consider this declaration, together with 
the performance of the engagements contained therein, as a full and entire 
satisfaction for the injury of which his majesty has complained. 

The undersigned declares, at the same time, that it is to be under- 
stood, that neither the said declaration signed by Count Florida Blanca, 
nor the acceptance thereof by the undersigned, in the name of the king, 
is to preclude or prejudice, in any respect, the right which his majesty 
may claim to any establishment which his subjects may have formed, or 
should be desirous of forming in future, at the said bay of Nootka. 

In witness whereof, I have signed this counter-declaration, and sealed 
it with the seal of my arms. At Madrid, the 24th of July, 1790. 

(l. s.) Signed, 

Alleyne Fitzherbert. 



430 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [jjj. 

(8.) 

Decree of the National Convention of France, on the Subject of the 
Application of the King of Spain for Aid in resisting the Demands 
of Great Britain. Paris, August 6th, 1790. 

The National Assembly, deliberating on the formal proposition of the 
king, contained in the letter of the minister, dated the 1st of August, 

Decree, that the king be supplicated to make known to his Catholic 
majesty, that the French nation, in taking all proper measures to maintain 
peace, will observe the defensive and commercial engagements which the 
French government have previously contracted with Spain. 

They further decree that his majesty shall be requested immediately 
to charge his ambassador in Spain to negotiate" with the minister of his 
Catholic majesty to the effect of perpetuating and renewing, by a national 
treaty, the ties so useful to the two nations, and to fix with precision and 
clearness every stipulation which shall be strictly conformable to the 
views of general peace, and to the principles of justice, which will be 
forever the policy of the French. 

The National Assembly further taking into consideration the arma- 
ments of the different nations of Europe, their progressive increase, 
and the safety of the French colonies and commerce, decree, that the 
king shall be prayed to give orders that the French marine force in 
commission shall be increased to forty-five ships of the line, with a 
proportionate number of frigates and other vessels. 



E. 



Documents relative to the Discovery of the Columbia 
River by the Spaniards and the Americans. 

Extract from the Report of Captain Bruno Heceta, commanding the 
Spanish Corvette Santiago, in a Voyage along the North-West Coast 
of Ainerica, in 1775, containing the Particulars of his Discovery of 
the Mouth of the Great River, since called the Columbia* 

ORIGINAL. 

El dia diez y siete, [de agosto, 1775,] recorri la costa, hasta el grade 
cuarenta y seis; y vi que desde la latitud de cuarenta y siete grades y 

* From the original Report, preserved in the Hydrographical Office at Madrid, 
copied under the supervision of Don Martin Fernandes de Navarate, the chief of 
that department, whose certificate in proof of its authenticity is appended to the 
copy. — See p. 120 of this History. 



E.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 431 

cuarenta minutos, hasta la de cuarenta y seis grades cuareuta minutos, 
corria al angulo de diez y ocho, en el segundo cuadrante ; y desde esta 
graduacion, hasta la de cuarenta y seis, y ciiatro, al angulo de doce del 
mismo cuadrante, y con la misma sonda, playa y frondosidad, y algunos 
islotes, que la de los dias anteriores. 

La tarde de este dia, descubri una grande bahia, que la nombre de 
la Asuncion ; cuya figura representa el piano que va inserto en este diario; 
su latitud y amplitud esta sujeta a las demarcaciones mas exactas que 
ofrece la theorica y practica de esta carrera. 

Las latitudes de los cabos mas salientes de dicha bahia, particularmente 
la del Norte, esta calculada por la observacion de aquel dia. 

Habiendola llegado a flanquear a las seis de la tarde, y cuasi situada la 
fragata entre los dos Cabos, sonde en veinte y cuatro brazas, y eran tan 
rapidos los remolinos de las corrientes, que no obstante haber esforzado 
de vela, fue trabajoso el salir 6 seperarse del Cabo de mas al Norte, que 
es hacia la parte donde rhas se inclinaba la corriente, que tambien tenia 
su direccion al este, y con el dependia del flujo de la marea. 

Estas corrientes y hervidero de aguas me ban hecho creer sea desem- 
bocadura de algun gran rio 6 paso para algun otro mar. 

Si la latitud en que se situo la bahia no tubiera la constante prueba de 
la observacion de aquel dia creeria sin dificultad era este el paso descubierto 
el ano de 1592 por Juan de Fuca, que lo situan las cartas entre los grados 
de cuarenta y ocho grados y cuarenta y siete de latitud, donde no me 
queda duda, no se halla este estrecho, por haber estado fondeado el dia 
catorce de Julio, en el centre de estas latitudes, y registrado varias veces 
todas aquellas inmediaciones. 

No obstante la mucha diferencia de la situaclon de esta bahia, y el 
paso que cita de Fuca, se mi hace poco dificultoso el dudar, si es uno 
mismo; porque he observado, hay igual variedad 6 mayor, en las latitudes 
de otros cabos y puertos de esta costa, como los citare a su tiempo; y en 
todos, es mayor la latitud en que los fijan, que la que tiene sus verdaderas 
situaciones. 

El no haber entrado y fondeado en el puerto, que parece forma la que 
en el piano supongo isla, no obstante los vivos deseos que me asisten, fue 
porque, habiendo tomado parecer del segundo Capitan y practico Don 
Juan Perez, y piloto Don Christoval Revilla, insistieron en que no debia 
executar, porque, de dejar caer el ancla, no teniamos gente con que 
zarparla, y atender a la faena, que de esto resulta. Hecho cargo yo, de 
estas razones, y que para hacer rumbo al fondeadero, me era precise 
hechar la lancha al agua (unica embarcacion menor que tenia) esquifarla 
con catorce individuos de la tripulacion, lo menos, y que sin estos no 
podia empeiiarme, notando al mismo tiempo, era tarde, resolvi virar para 
fuera; y hallandome a la distancia de -tres 6 cuatro leguas, hice capa. 
Experimente esta noche vivas corrientes al S. O. que me imposibilitaron 
intentar recalar en esta bahia, la maiiana del dia siguiente, por estar 
muy sotavento. 

Tambien estas me hicieron consentir, en que en el reflujo, salia de 
aquella bahia, mucha cantidad de aguas. 

Los dos Cabos que cito en el piano, de San Rogue y del Frondoso 
corren al angulo de diez grados del tercer cuadrante ; ambos son escar- 
pados de tierra colorada con poca elevacion. 

El dia dies y ocho, demarque el Cabo Frondoso que cito, con otro que 



432 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [E. 

le puse por nonibre de Falcon, situado en la latitud de cuarenta y cinco 
grades cuarenta y tres minutos; y corria al angulo de veinte y dos grados 
del tercer cuadrante ; y desde este cabo sigue la costa, al angulo de cinco 
grados, del segundo cuadrante. 

Esta es de tierra montuosa, no muy elevada, ni tan poblada de arboleda, 
coino la que induce los grados desde la latitud de cuarenta y ocho, treinta, 
hasta los cuarenta y seis. 

En la sonda, encontre notable diferencia; pues a distancia de siete 
leguas, sonde en ochenta y cuatro brazas, y acercandome a la costa, no 
halle algunas veces sonda ; lo que me ha hecho creer, hay algunos placeres 
6 bancos de arena, sobre estas costas, pues tambien el color de las aguas 
lo denota asi. En algunas partes, acaba la costa en playa, y en otros 
acantilada. 

Una montana plana, que la llame de 3Icsa, hara que qualquier navegante 
se haga capaz de la situacion del Cabo Falcon, aunque no haya tenido 
observacion; por que esta en la latitud de cuarenta y cinco veinte y ocho 
minutos, v se deja ver de lejos por ser medianamente alta. 



TRANSLATION. 

On the 17th [ot August, 1775] I sailed along the coast to the 46th 
degree, and observed that, from the latitude of 47 degrees 4 minutes 
to that of 46 degrees 40 minutes, it runs in the angle of 18 degrees of the 
second quadrant,* and from that latitude to 46 degrees 4 minutes, in the 
angle of 12 degrees of the same quadrant ; the soundings, the shore, the 
wooded character of the country, and the little islands, being the same as 
on the preceding days. 

In the evening of this day, I discovered a large bay, to which I gave 
the name of Assumption Bay, and of which a plan will be found in this 
journal. Its latitude and longitude are determined according to the most 
exact means afforded by theory and practice. 

The latitudes of the two most prominent capes of this bay, especially 
of the northern one, are calculated from the observations of this day.t 

Having arrived opposite this bay at six in the evening, and placed the 
ship nearly midway between the two capes, I sounded, and found bottom 
in twenty-four brazas ;\ the currents and eddies were so strong that, 
notwithstanding a press of sail, it was difficult to get out clear of the north- 
ern cape, towards which the current ran, though its direction was east- 
ward, in consequence of the tide being at flood. 

These currents and eddies of the water caused me to believe that J:he 
place is the mouth of some great river, or of some passage to another sea. 

* The card of the Spanish compass was formerly divided into four quadrants, on 
which the points were counted by degrees. 

\ In the table accompanying the report, the position of the vessel is given on the 
17th of August, as in latitude of 46 degrees 17 minutes, which is within one minute of 
the latitude of Cape Disappointment, (the Cape San Rogue of Heceta,) the northern 
point, at the entrance of the Columbia ; the longitude is made 15 dejjrees 38 minutes 
west of Cape San Lucas, the southern extremity of California, which is about a 
degree and a half too far west, yet remarkably near the truth, considering tliat 
the Spanisli navigator was obliged to depend entirely on the dead reckoning for 
his longitudes. 

t The Spanish hraza, or fathom, contains six Spanish feet, nearly equal to five feet 
nine inches English. 



E.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 433 

Had I not been certain of the latitude of this bay, from my observations 
of the same day, I might easily have believed it to be the p.iss;ige dis- 
covered by Juan de Fuca, in 150'2, which is placed on the charts between 
the 47 til and the 4Sth degrees ; where I am certain that no such strait 
exists; because I anchored on the 14th of July midway between these 
two latitudes, and carefully examined every thing around. 

Notwithstanding the great difference between the position of this bay 
and the passage mentioned by De Fuca, I have little difficulty in con- 
ceiving that they may be the same, having observed equal or greater 
differences in the latitudes of other capes and ports on this coast, as I 
shall show at its proper time ; and in all cases the latitudes thus assigned 
are higher than the real ones. 

I did not enter and anchor in this port, which in my plan I suppose 
to be formed by an island, notwithstanding my strong desire to do so; 
because, having consulted the second captain, Don Juan Perez, and the 
pilot, Don Christoval Revilla, they insisted that I ought not to attempt it, 
as, if we let go the anchor, we should not have men enough to get it up, 
and to attend to the other operations which would be thereby rendered 
necessary. Considering this, and also that, in order to reach the anchor- 
age, I shoidd be obliged to lower my long-boat, (the only boat that I had,) 
and to man it with at least fourteen of the crew, as 1 could not manage with 
fewer, and also that it was then late in the day, I resolved to put out; and 
at the distance of three or four leagues I lay to. In the course of that 
night, I experienced heavy currents to the south-west, which made it 
impossible for me to enter the bay on the following morning, as I was 
far to leeward. 

These currents, however, convinced me that a great quantity of water 
rushed from this bay on the ebb of the tide. 

The two capes which I name in my plan Cape San Roque * and Cape 
Frondoso,f lie in the angle of ten degrees of the third quadrant. They 
are both faced with red earth, and are of little elevation. 

On the 18th, I observed Cape Frondoso, with another cape, to which 
I gave the name of Cape Falcon, ^ situated in the latitude of 45 degrees 
43 minutes, and they lay at the angle of 22 degrees of the third quadrant, 
and from the last-mentioned cape I traced the coast running in the angle 
of five degrees of tlie second quadrant. 

This land is mountainous, but not very high, nor so well wooded as 
that lying between the latitudes of 48 degrees 30 minutes, and 46 degrees. 

On sounding, I found great differences : at the distance of 7 leagues, 
I got bottom at 84 brazas ; and nearer the coast, I sometimes found no 
bottom; from which I am inclined to believe that there are reefs or 
shoals on these coasts, which is also shown by the color of the water. In 
some places, the coast presents a beach, in others it is rocky. 

A flat-topped mountain, which I named The Tablc,^ will enable any nav- 
igator to know the position of Cape Falcon without observing it ; as it is 
in the latitude of 45 degrees 28 minutes, and may be seen at a great dis- 
tance, being somewhat elevated. 

* Cape Disappointment. \ Cape Lookout. 

t Cape Adams. § Charke's Point of View. 

55 



434 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [E. 



(2.) 

Extract from the Second Volume of the Log-Book of the Ship Columbia^ 
of Boston, commanded hy Robert Gray, containing the Account of 
her Entrance into the Columbia River, in May, 1792.* 

Blay 7th, 1792, A. M. — Being within six miles of the land, saw an 
entrance in the same, which had a very good appearance of a harbor; 
lowered away the jolly-boat, and went in search of an anchoring-place, 
the ship standing to and fro, with a very strong weather current. At one, 
P. M., the boat returned, having found no place where the ship could 
anchor with safety ; made sail on the ship ; stood in for the shore. We 
soon saw, from our mast-head, a passage in between the sand-bars. At 
half past three, bore away, and ran in north-east by east, having from four 
to eight fathoms, sandy bottom ; and, as we drew in nearer between the 
bars, had from ten to thirteen fathoms, having a very strong tide of ebb to 
stem. Many canoes came alongside. At five, P. M., came to in five 
fathoms water, sandy bottom, in a safe harbor, well sheltered from the 
sea by long sand-bars and spits. Our latitude observed this day was 
46 degrees 58 minutes north. 

3Iay 10th. — Fresh breezes and pleasant weather; many natives along- 
side; at noon, all the canoes left us. At one, P. M., began to unmoor, 
took up the best bower-anchor, and hove short on the small bower-anchor. 
At half past four, (being high water,) hove up the anchor, and came to 
sail and a beating down the harbor. 

31ay llth. — At half past seven, we were out clear of the bars, and 
directed our course to the southward, along shore. At eight, P. M., the 
entrance of Bulfinch's Harbor bore north, distance four miles ; the south- 
ern extremity of the land bore south-south-east half east, and the northern 
north-north-west; sent up the main-top-gallant-yard and set all sail. At 
four, A. M., saw the entrance of our desired port bearing east-south-east, 
distance six leagues; in steering sails, and hauled our wind in shore. At 
eight, A. M., being a little to windward of the entrance of the Harbor, 
bore away, and run in east-north-east between the breakers, having from 
five to seven fathoms of water. When we were over the bar, we found 
this to be a large river of fresh water, up which we steered. Many canoes 
came alongside. At one, P. M., came to with the small bower, in ten 
fathoms, black and white sand. The entrance between the bars bore 
west-south-west, distant ten miles; the north side of the river a half mile 
distant from the ship ; the south side of the same two and a half miles' 
distance; a village on the north side of the river west by north, distant 
three quarters of a mile. Vast numbers of natives came alongside ; 
people employed in pumping the salt water out of our water-casks, in 
order to fill with fresh, while the ship floated in. So ends. 

May 12^/t. — Many natives alongside; noon, fresh wind; let go the 

* This extract was made in 1816, by Mr. Bulfinch, of Boston, one of the owners of 
the Columbia, from the second volume of the log-book, which was then in the pos- 
session of Captain Gray's heirs, but has since disappeared. It has been frequently 
published in newspapers and reports to Congress, accompanied by the affidavit of Mr. 
Bulfinch to its exactness. — See p. 236 of the History. 



E.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 435 

best bower-anchor, and veered out on both cables ; sent down the niain- 
top-gallant-yard ; filled up all the water-casks in the hold. The latter 
part, heavy gales, and rainy, dirty weather. 

3Iay Vith. — Fresh winds and rainy weather; many natives along- 
side ; hove up the best bower-anchor ; seamen and tradesmen at their 
various departments. 

May \4tth. — Fresh gales and cloudy; many natives alongside; at 
noon, weighed and came to sail, standing up the river north-east by east; 
we found the channel very narrow. At lour, P. M., we had sailed up- 
wards of twelve or fifteen miles, when the channel was so very narrow 
that it was almost impossible to keep in it, having from three to eighteen 
fathoms water, sandy bottom. At half past four, the ship took ground, 
but she did not stay long before she came off, without any assistance. 
We backed her off, stern foremost, into three fathoms, and let go the 
small bower, and moored ship with kedge and hawser. The jolly-boat 
was sent to sound the channel out, but found it not navigable any farther 
up ; so, of course, we must have taken the wrong channel. So ends, 
with rainy weather; many natives alongside. 

3Iay I'yth. — Light airs and pleasant weather; many natives from 
different tribes came alongside. At ten, A. M., unmoored and dropped 
down with the tide to a better anchoring-place ; smiths and other trades- 
men constantly employed. In the afternoon. Captain Gray and Mr. Hos- 
kins, in the jolly-boat, went on shore to take a short view of the country. 

3Iay Wth. — Light airs and cloudy. At four, A. M., hove up the 
anchor and towed down about three miles, with the last of the ebb-tide ; 
came into six fathoms, sandy bottom, the jolly-boat sounding the channel. 
At ten, A. M., a fresh breeze came up river. With the first of the ebb- 
tide we got under way, and beat down river. At one, (from its beimr 
very squally,) we came to, about two miles from the village, (Chinouk,) 
which bore west-south-west; many natives alongside; fresh o-ales and 
squally. 

3Iay 17th. — Fresh winds and squally; many canoes alongside; calk- 
ers calking the pinnace; seamen paying the ship's sides with tar; painter 
painting ship; smiths and carpenters at their departments. 

3Iay ISt/i. — Pleasant weather. At four in the mornins:, beoran to 
heave ahead; at half past, came to sail, standing down river with the ebb- 
tide; at seven, (being slack water and the wind fluttering,) we came to in 
five fathoms, sandy bottom ; the entrance between the bars bore south- 
west by west, distant three miles. The north point of the harbor bore 
north-west, distant two miles; the south bore south-east, distant three and 
a half miles. At nine, a breeze sprimg up from the eastward : took up 
the anchor and came to sail, but the wind soon came flutterino- acrain • 
came to with the kedge and hawser; veered out fifty fathoms. Noon, 
pleasant. Latitude observed, 46 degrees 17 minutes north. At one, 
came to sail with the first of the ebb-tide, and drifted down broadside 
with light airs and strong tide ; at three quarters past, a fresh wind came 
from the northward; wore ship, and stood into the river acrain. At four, 
came to in six fathoms; good holding-ground about six or seven miles 
up ; many canoes alongside. 

3Iay lOth. — Fresh wind and clear weather. Early a number of 
canoes came alongside; seamen and tradesmen employed in their various 
departments. Captain Gray gave this river the name of Columbia's 



436 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [F. 

River, and the north side of the entrance Cape Hancock, the south, 
Adaius's Point. 

May 2Qth. — Gentle breezes and pleasant weather. At one, P. M., 
(being full sea,) took up the anchor, and made sail, standing down river. 
At two, the wind left us, we being on the bar with a very strong tide, 
which set on the breakers; it was now not possible to get out without a 
breeze to shoot her across the tide ; so we were obliged to bring up in 
three and a half fathoms, the tide running five knots. At three quarters 
past two, a fresh wind came in from seaward ; we immediately came to 
sail, and beat over the bar, having from five to seven fathoms water in the 
channel. At five, P. M., we were out, clear of all the bars, and in twenty 
fathoms water. A breeze came from the southward; we bore away to 
the northward ; set all sail to the best advantage. At eight, Cape Han- 
cock bore south-east, distant three leagues ; the north extremity of the land 
in sight bore north by west. At nine, in steering and top-gallant sails. 
Midnight, light airs. 

31ai/ 2\st. — At six, A. M., the nearest land in sight bore east-south- 
east, distant eight leagues. At seven, set top-gallant-sails and light stay- 
sails. At eleven, set steering-sails fore and aft. Noon, pleasant, agree- 
able weather. The entrance of Bulfinch's Harbor bore south-east by east 
half east, distant five leagues. 



F. 

Showing that the Forty-ninth Parallel of Latitude was 
not selected as the line of separation between the 
French and the British Territories in North America, 
BY Commissaries appointed agreeably to the Treaty of 
Utrecht.* 

Mr. Monroe, minister plenipotentiary of the United States in London, 
in his letter of September 5th, 1804, to Lord Harrowby, the British secre- 
tary for foreign affairs,t makes the following statement with regard to the 
adoption of the 49th parallel of latitude as the northern boundary of Lou- 
isiana : — 

" By the tenth article of the treaty of Utrecht, it is agreed that 'France 
shall restore to Great Britain the Bay and Straits of Hudson, together with 
all the lands, seas, sea-coasts, rivers, and places, situate in the said bay 
and straits, which belong thereto; and it is also agreed, on both sides, to 
determine, within a year, by commissaries to be forthwith named by each 
party, the limits which are to be fixed between the said Bay of Hudson 
and the places appertaining to the French, which limits both the British 
and French subjects shall be wholly forbid to pass over, or thereby to go 
to each other, by sea or by land : the same commissioners shall also have 
orders to describe and settle in like manner the boundaries between the 

* See p. 282 of the History. 

t Communicated to Congress, and published with President Jefferson's message of 
March 30th, 1808. 



F.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 4JJ7 

Other British and French colonies in those parts.' Commissaries were 
accordingly appointed by each power, who executed the stipulations of 
the treaty, in establishing the boundaries proposed by it. They lixed the 
northern boundary of Canada and Louisiana by a line beginning on the 
Atlantic, at a cape or promontory in 58 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, 
thence south-westwardly to the Lake Mistissin, thence farther south-west 
to the latitude of 49 degrees north from the equator, and along that line 
indefinitely." 

Mr. Monroe does not give his authority for the assertion respecting the 
adoption of this line by the commissaries ; he, however, most probably 
derived his information from the mnp of America attached to Postle- 
thwayt's Dictionary of Commerce, published in 1751, to which he alludes 
in other parts of his correspondence, and in which a line appears nearly 
as described by him, with a note on the map, saying, " The line that parts 
French Canada from British Canada was settled by commissaries, after 
the peace of Utrecht, making a curve from Davis's Inlet, in the Atlantic 
Sea, doion to the AS)th degree, through Lake Abitibis, to the North-West 
Ocean." In the Dictionary to which this map is attached, the limits of 
these territories are expressly declared to be undetermined. The map of 
North America, by Palairet and Delaroche, published at London in 1765, 
also gives the same line, without any note as to the manner in which it 
was adopted. In the map of the British Possessions in America, pub- 
lished by Bowen and Gibson in 1775, and in one or two other inferior 
maps, the 49th parallel is given as the southern limit of the Hudson's 
Bay Company's territories, from the vicinity of Lake Superior, westward 
to Red River, down which the boundary is continued to Lake Winnipeg. 
These are the only authorities, as yet discovered, for the belief that the 
49th parallel was adopted as a boundary by commissaries appointed ac- 
cording to the treaty of Utrecht. 

On the other hand, Mitchell's great map of America, published in 
1755 at London, under the patronage of the colonial department, presents 
a line drawn around Hudson's Bay, at the distance of about one hundred 
and fifty miles from its shore, as " the bounds of Hudson's Bay by the 
treaty of Utrecht ;" and the same line appears on the map of America 
accompanying Smollett's History of England, published in 1760, on that 
of Beimet, published in 1770, on that of Faden, in 1777, and on some 
other maps of that period. 

No line of separation whatsoever, between the Hudson's Bay territories 
and the French possessions in America, is to be found on the large and 
beautiful map of America by Henry Popple, published in 1738, also under 
the patronage of the colonial department, and bearing the stamp of the 
approbation of Dr. Halley, which is particularly minute in all that relates 
to the territories in question ; or on any of the maps in the atlas of Max- 
well and Senex, published in 1721, or in any of tliose attached to the 
volume of Boyer's Political State for 1721 — to the History of Hudson's 
Bay, by Dobbs — to the American Traveller, by Cluny — to the History 
of the British Empire in America, by Wynne — to Alcedo's Dictionary 
of America, or on many other maps, of inferior merit, which might be 
named. 

These discrepancies should not excite surprise ; for maps, and books 
of geography, which are most frequently consulted in relation to bounda- 
ries, are, or rather have been, the very worst authorities on such subjects ; 



438 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [F. 

as they are ordinarily made by persons wholly unacquainted with political 
affairs. Of this, numerous examples may be cited from works of authors 
the most highly esteemed as geographers, even at the present day.* 

No allusion whatsoever to the settlement of any boundary line between 
the Hudson's Bay territories and the French dominions, by commissaries 
appointed agreeably to the treaty of Utrecht, is to be found in any of the 
following works, which have been carefully examined with reference to 
this question : viz. — Actes, Memoires, &c., concernant la Paix d'Utrecht, 
a voluminous work, published in 171G — Actes, Negotiations, &c., depuis 
la Paix d'Utrecht, 1745 — the collections of treaties and state papers by 
Dumont, Boyer, Martens, Jenkinson, and Herstlet — Collection des Edits, 
Ordonnances, &c., concernant le Canada — the histories of, and memoirs 
on, Louisiana, by Dumont, Le Page Dupratz, Vergennes, Marbois, and 
others — Memoires des Commissaires Francais et Anglais, sur les Pos- 
sessions, &c., des deux Couronnes en Amerique, 1754 — the works of 
Swift and of Bolingbroke — the Parliamentary History of England — and 
the Histories of England by Tindal, Smollet, Belsham, Mahon, or Wade. 

This is strong negative evidence. Anderson, in his elaborate History 
of Commerce, (vol. iii. p. 267,) thus pointedly denies that any such set- 
tlement of limits was effected agreeably to the provisions of the treaty of 
Utrecht : " Though the French king yielded to the queen of Great 
Britain, to be possessed by her, in fidl right, forever, the Bay and Straits 
of Hudson, and all parts thereof, and within the same then possessed by 
France, yet leaving the boundaries between Hudson's Bay and the north 
parts of Canada belonging to France to be determined by commissaries 
within a year, was, in effect, the same thing as giving up the point alto- 
gether ; it being well known, to all Europe, that France never permits 
her commissaries to determine matters referred to such, unless it can be 
done with great advantage to her. Those boundaries, therefore, have 
never yet been settled, though the British and French subjects are, by 
that article, expressly debarred from passing over the same, or thereby to 
go to each other, by sea or land. These commissaries were likewise to 
settle the boundaries between the other British and French colonies on 

* In a large and beautifully-engraved map of the United States, published at Piiila- 
delphia, in 1821, '■'from the most undouhted authorities, by — -i-\ '•'>' • , geographer and 
draughtsman,''^ the northern boundary of the United States west of the Mississippi is 
represented by a line drawn westward from the sources of that river, nearly under the 
latitude of 47 degrees and 40 minutes; the country north of this line being stated to 
be '■'in dispute beticecn Spain and Great Britain." Now, three years before this nisp 
appeared, the boundary between the United States and the British possessions in that 
part of America had been fixed by treaty, according to which, the dividing line fol- 
lowed the course of the 49t,h parallel ; and, two years before the date of the map, 
Spain had also, by treaty, ceded to the United States her rights to all territories in 
America north of the 42d parallel. These treaties had been published ; and it is 
scarcely credible that they should have been unknown to an American geographer 
engaged in preparing a map of the United States. Mistakes of the same kind, equally 
great, are, however, committed in Europe. In the Encyclopfedia of Geography, 
published at Edinbvirgh, in 1834, by Hugh Murray, and other scientific persons, we 
find it stated, (p. 1374,) that " the whole region west of the Rocky Mountains, e.x- 
tending between the 42d and the 49th parallels of latitude, has, bij discovery and 
treaty, been assigned to the United States ; " and a statement to the same effect may be 
found in the London Quarterly Review for January, 1822. These mistakes evidently 
arose from ignorance : but the same defence cannot be pleaded in all cases ; for maps 
have been drawn, and engraved, and colored, with a full knowledge of their falsehood, 
in order to forward the ends of governments or of individuals. 



G.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 439 

that continent, which, likewise, was never done." The same denial is 
transferred by Macpherson to his Annals of Commerce. 

The only evidence of the appointment of commissaries for the settlement 
of limits according to the treaty of Utrecht which has been discovered, 
is contained in a passage in Charlevoix's Histoire dc la Nouvdle France, 
of which the following is a translation : " France took no part in this 
dispute, [between the British and the Indians of Nova Scotia, in 1722,] 
in order to avoid giving the slightest pretext for interrupting the good 
understanding between the two nations, which had been restored with so 
much difficulty ; even the negotiations between the two courts for the set- 
tlement of boundaries ceased, although commissaries had been appointed, 
on both sides, for that object since 1719." 



G. 

Papers relative to the American Establishment of Astoria, 
ON THE Columbia River.* 

(!•) 

Letter from J. J. Astor, of New York, to the Honorable John Quincy 
Adams, Secretary of State of the United States.f 

f^ New York, Januanj Ath, 1823. 

I had the honor to receive your letter of the 24th ultimo. Indis- 
position has prevented my acknowledging the receipt thereof at an earlier 
period. 

You request information of arrangements made, at or about 1S14, by 
the North- West Company and citizens of the United States, by which 
that company became possessed of a settlement made at the mouth of 
Columbia River by citizens of the United States. The settlement to 
which you allude, I presume, is "Astoria," as I know of no other having 
been made at or near the mouth of that river. Several circumstances are 
alleged, as having contributed to the arrangement by which the North- 
West Company became in possession of that settlement, but chiefly to the 
misuse of the confidence which had been placed in Mr. McDougal, who, 
at the time the arrangement was made, and at the time my agent, Mr. 
Wilson P. Hunt, was absent, acted as sub-agent. 

I beg leave briefly to state, that, contemplating to make an establish- 
ment, at the mouth of Columbia River, which should serve as a place of 
depot, and give further facilities for conducting a trade across this conti- 
nent to that river, and from thence, on the range of north-west coast, 
&c., to Canton, in China, and from thence to the United States, arrano-e- 
raents were accordingly made, in 1810, for a party of men to cross the 

* See chap. xiv. of the History. 

t Documents accompanying President Monroe's message to Congress of January 
27th, 1823. 



440 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [G. 

continent for the Columbia River. At the same time, I fitted out the 
ship Tonquin, carrying twenty guns and sixty men, commanded by the 
late Captain Thorn, lieutenant in the United States navy. The ship 
sailed in September, 1810, having on board the means for making an 
establishment at Columbia, where she arrived on the 22d of March, 1811. 
They landed, found the natives friendly, and built a fort, erected a house, 
store, &c. This being accomplished, Captain Thorn left thirty men in 
possession of the place, to await the party who were to make the voyage 
over land ; these, also, happily arrived, though not till several months after. 
On or about the 1st of June, Captain Thorn left Columbia River, with a 
view to make some trade on the coast, and then to return to the river ; 
but, unfortunately. Thorn never returned. At about two hundred miles 
north of Columbia, he put in a bay to trade with the natives. Not at- 
tending to the precautions necessary, as he had been instructed to do, to 
guard against an attack, he suffered a whole tribe of Indians to come on 
board and about his ship. An attack was made ; he was overpowered : 
fire was communicated to the magazine, the ship was blown up, and every 
soul on board or near her perished. 

In 1811, I fitted out another ship, the Beaver, carrying twenty guns, 
with a duplicate cargo to the ship Tonquin, and sixty or seventy men. 
The Captain [Sowles] was instructed to sail for the Columbia River, and 
in search of the men who were sent across the continent, as also of the 
Tonquin. The Beaver sailed from this in October, 1811, arrived at Co- 
lumbia in May following, found the establishment, and landed such men, 
goods, provisions, &c., as the establishment was in need of My instruc- 
tions to the captain were, that, after supplying the establishment, he should 
proceed to Chatka,* a Russian settlement, for the purpose of trade, and 
then return to Columbia, take what furs we had, and proceed to Canton, 
and thence to New York. He accordingly left Columbia, (and, most 
unfortunately, Mr. Hunt, of Trenton, New Jersey, my chief agent, left 
the river with him,) sailed, as directed, for the Russian settlement, and 
effected their object; but, instead of following instructions to return to 
Columbia, he sailed direct for Canton, leaving Mr. Hunt at one of the 
Sandwich Islands, to await the arrival of another ship, which I had prom- 
ised to send from this in 1812. The ship Beaver arrived at Canton, and 
received there the news of the war. I had sent orders to the captain to 
return to Astoria; but he was fearful of being captured, and remained 
safely at Canton till the war was over, when he came home. In conse- 
quence of the war, I found it inconvenient to send a ship in 1812, but I 
did send one, the Lark, early in 1813, with directions to the captain to 
sail for Columbia River, and to stop at the Sandwich Islands for informa- 
tion. Being within a few days' sail of those islands, the ship, in a squall 
of wind, was upset, and finally drifted on the beach of one of those 
islands, a wreck, — ship and cargo totally lost. Here was met Mr. Hunt, 
who, after all the information he received, and my great desire to protect 
the establishment at Columbia River, procured an American vessel, took 
some provisions, sailed, and arrived in Columbia River. He there learned 
that Mr. McDougal had transferred all my property to the North-West 
Company, who were in possession of it by a sale, as he called it, for the 
sum of about fifly-eight thousand dollars, of which he retained fourteen 

* Sitka, or New Archangel, the chief establishment in Russian America. 



G.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 441 

thousand dollars, for wages said to be due to some of the men. From the 
price obtained for the goods, &c., and he having himself become interested 
in the purchase, and made a partner of the North- West Company, some 
idea may be formed as to this man's correctness of dealings. It will be 
seen, by the agreement (that of which I transmit a copy) and the invento- 
ry, that he sold to the North-West Company eighteen thousand one 
hundred and seventy and a quarter pounds of beaver at two dollars, which 
was at that time selling in Canton at five and six dollars ; nine hundred 
and seven otter skins at fifty cents, or half a dollar, which were selling at 
Canton at five to six dollars per skin. 

I estimated the whole property to be worth nearer two hundred 
thousand dollars than forty thousand dollars, about the sum I received in 
bills on Montreal. Previous to the transaction of McDougal, we had 
already established trading posts in the interior, and were in contact with 
the North-West Company. It is now to be seen what means have been 
used by them to counteract my plan. It is well known that, as soon as 
the Norlh-West Company had information of my intention and plan for 
conducting my commercial operations, they despatched a party of men 
from the interior, with a view to arrive before my people at Columbia. 
These men were obliged to return without effecting their object. In the 
mean time, representation was made to their government as to the proba- 
ble effect of my operations on their interest, and requesting to interfere 
in their behalf This being in time of peace, the government did not 
deem it advisable so to do. So soon, however, as war was declared, these 
representations were renewed, aid was asked from the government, and it 
was granted. The Phoebe frigate, and sloops of war Raccoon and Por- 
cupine, were sent from England, with orders to proceed to Columbia 
River, and destroy my property. They sailed from England early in Jan- 
uary, 1813. Arriving at Rio Janeiro, Admiral Dickson ordered the 
Phoebe frigate, with one of the sloops, to pursue Captain Porter in the 
frigate Eosex, and the sloop of war Raccoon, to the Columbia. She ar- 
rived there, took possession in the name of the king, and changed the 
name of the place from Astoria to Fort George. Previous to this, the 
North-West Company had despatched another or second pnrty of men to 
the Columbia. They arrived there in the absence of Mr. Hunt; McDou- 
gal gave them support and protection, and they commenced, after some 
time, to negotiate with this gentleman. 

The reasons assigned by him for his conduct will be seen by an extract 
of a letter said to have been sent by a Mr. Shaw, c-f the North-West 
Company, and of which I send you a copy. The plan by me adopted 
was such as must materially have affected the interest of the North-West 
and Hudson's Bay Companies, and it was easy to be foreseen that they 
would employ every means to counteract my operations, and which, as my 
impression, I stated to the executive of your department as early ;:s Feb- 
ruary, 1813, as will be seen by a copy of the sketch of a letter which I 
wrote to the secretary of state, and to which no reply was given. On re- 
peated application, some time after, aid was promised me; but I believe 
the situation of our country rendered it inconvenient to give it. You 
will observe that the nnme of the Pacific Fur Company is made use of at 
the commencement of the arrangements for this undertaking. I preferred 
to have it appear as the business of a company, rather than that of an 
individual ; and several of the gentlemen engaged — Mr. Hunt, Mr. Crooks, 
56 



442 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [G. 

Mr. McKay, McDougal, Stuart, &c. — were, in effect, to be interested as 
partners in the undertaking, so far as respected the profit which might 
arise: but the means were furnished by me, and the property was solely 
mine, and I sustained the loss, which, though considerable, I do not re- 
gret, because, had it not been for the unfortunate occurrence just stated, I 
should have been, as I believe, most richly rewarded; as it will be seen 
that the difference of price in the beaver and otter skins alone, say what 
I received, and the value of them at Canton at that time, is about sixty 
thousand dollars. The copy of the agreement, inventory, and extract of 
Shaw's letter, you will please return to me. 

I am, sir, &c., 

John Jacob Astor 

(2.) 

Agreement between the Agents of the Pacific Fur Company and the North- 
West Company, for the Transfer of the Establishments of the Former, 
on the Columbia River, to the Latter ; concluded on the \Qth of Octo- 
ber, 1813. 

The association heretofore carrying on the fur trade to the Columbia 
River and its dependencies, under the firm and denomination of the 
Pacific Fur Company, being dissolved, on the 1st of July last, by 
Duncan McDougal, Donald McKenzie, David Stuart, and John Clarke, 
with the intention to abandon the trade in that quarter, it is hereby agreed, 
concluded, and settled upon, of their own free will and consent, by 
Duncan McDougal, acting for himself and in behalf of his associates, 
namely, Donald McKenzie, David Stuart, and John Clarke, on the one 
part, and John George McTavish and John Stuart, acting for themselves 
and in behalf of the North-West Company, on the other part, that the 
following agreement and settlement take place between them, and be 
binding and obligatory in the manner, and subject to the terms and agree- 
ments, hereinafter specified and contained. Now, therefore, it is hereby 
mutually agreed and concluded, by and between the said parties to these 
presents, and they do hereby mutually covenant and agree, to and with 
each other, in manner following, that is to say : — 

Article 1. The party of the former part hereby covenants and 
agrees to deliver, or cause to be delivered, the whole of the establish- 
ments, furs, and present stock in hand, on the Columbia and Thomp- 
son's Rivers, as soon as the necessary inventories can be taken, unto the 
said party of the latter part, or any other person or persons appointed by 
them to represent the North-West Company, to receive the same at the 
prices and rates concluded and agreed upon as hereinafter specified, in 
article fourth. 

Art. 2. In consideration of article first being duly and faithfully 
performed by the party of the former part, they, the said John George 
McTavish and John Stuart, for themselves and on behalf of the North- 
West Company, do bind and oblige themselves and the said North-West 
Company, or their agents, to pay or cause to be paid, unto the said 
Duncan McDougal, acting for himself and in behalf of his associates, as 
before mentioned, his attorneys, assigns, or order, the amount of the sums 
arising from the sale, according to article first, and the rates hereinafter 



G.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 443 

specified in article fourth, at three several instalments ; the first one 
tihird on or before the 25th of October, 1814, the second one third on 
or before the 25th of November, and the remaining one third on or be- 
fore the 25th of December. And, further, it is hereby understood that, 
should the party of the former part find it convenient to leave the amount 
of the several drafts, after becoming payable, as already specified, in the 
hands of the parly of the latter part, or their agents, they, the said party 
of the latter part, or their agents, will allow interest at six per cent, until 
paid on demand ; and, as there are several moneys, the produce of their 
wages, due unto the people employed in the service of the late Pacific Fur 
Company, carrying on trade on the Columbia and Thompson's Rivers, 
the said party of the latter part, namely, John George McTavish and John 
Stuart, acting for themselves and the North-West Company, as their 
agents, do hereby bind and oblige themselves to pay, or cause to be paid, 
unto the several individuals employed by the party of the former part, the 
amount of the balances due to them, according to the statement that shall 
be delivered by the said Duncan McDougal, acting for himself and his 
associates, as before mentioned, within one month after their arrival at 
Montreal, in the province of Lower Canada; the amount of which several 
sums, so paid, is to be considered as part of, and deducted from, the first 
instalment, to be paid unto the said Duncan McDougal, acting for him- 
self and his associates, as before mentioned, his attorneys, assigns, or 
order, on or before the 25th of October, 1814. 

Art. 3. And, further, the said John George McTavish and John 
Stuart, acting for themselves and the North-West Company, will be at 
liberty to make a selection, and take into their service such of the peo- 
ple in the employment of the party of the former part as they may think 
proper ; in consideration of which, the said party of the latter part bind 
and oblige themselves to pay, or cause to be paid, unto the said party of 
the former part, the several sums due to them by such as may enter into 
the service of the party of the latter part : and the said party of the latter 
part further bind and oblige themselves to provide and insure a safe pas- 
sage to the said party of the former part, and the remaining part, that will 
not be taken into their service, to their respective homes. 

Art. 4. And, further, it is hereby agreed and concluded upon, by 
the said parties, that the following are the rates at which the establish- 
ments, furs, and stock on hand, be valued at, as follows : dry goods, sta- 
tionery, gunpowder, and leaf tobacco, fifty per cent, on the prime cost ; 
ship chandlery, sixty per cent. ; shot, ball, lead, iron, and steel, one 
hundred per cent. ; deduction on made-up iron works at Columbia River, 
thirty-three and one third per cent. ; new boats, each, ten pounds Halifax 
currency ; boats in use, each, five pounds Halifax currency ; shallop, with 
rigging complete, one hundred and twelve pounds ten shillings ; two black- 
smith's forges complete, twenty-five pounds; plug tobacco, one shilling and 
six pence per pound ; plug tobacco manufactured at Columbia, one shil- 
ling and three pence per pound; beads assorted, five shillings per pound; 
arms, cannon, &c., prime cost ; provisions at fixed prices ; articles in use, 
half inventory prices; horses, thirty shillings each; buildings, two hun- 
dred pounds; John.Reid's adventure, and Freeman's, in the vicinity of 
Snake country and Spanish River, to deduct one hundred per cent. ; 
beaver furs, ten shillings per pound; beaver coating, eight shillings and 
four pence per pound; muskrats, seven pence half-penny each; land 



444 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [G. 

otters, two shillings and six pence each ; sea otters, large, sixty shillings 
each. 

And for the faithful performance of all and singular the said covenants 
and agreements, to be by them respectively kept and performed, all and 
every of the parties to these presents bind themselves, separately and 
jointly, for their several associates, firmly by these presents. In witness 
whereof, the parties to these presents have hereunto set their hands and 
seals, this 16th day of October, 1813, at the entrance of Columbia River, 
north-west coast of America. 

Duncan McDougal, 
J. G. McTavish, 
Witnesses. J. Stuart. 

John C. Hasley, Angus Bethune, 

Gabriel Franchere, James McMillan, 

Alfred Seaton, Joseph McGillivray. 



William Wallace, 



(3.) 



Account of the Capture of Astoria by the British Sloop of War Raccoon, 
Captain Black, in December, 1813. Extracted from "Adventures on 
the Columbia River, by John Ross Cox." 

The Isaac Todd sailed from London in March, 1813, in company 
with the Phoebe frigate, and the Cherub and Raccoon sloops of war. 
They arrived safe at Rio Janeiro, arid thence proceeded around Cape 
Horn to the Pacific, having previously made arrangements to meet at 
Juan Fernandez. The three men-of-war reached the latter island, after 
encountering dreadful gales about the cape : they waited there some time 
for the Tsnac Todd: but, as she did not make her appearance. Commo- 
dore Hillyer did not deem it prudent to'remain any longer inactive. He 
therefore, in company with the Cherub, proceeded in search of Commo- 
dore Porter, who, in the American frigate Essex, was clearing the South 
Sea of English whalers, and inflicting other injuries of a serious nature 
on our commerce ; he shortly after met the Essex at Valparaiso, and, after 
a severe contest, captured her. 

At the same time, he ordered Captain Black, in the Raccoon, to 
proceed direct to the Columbia, for the purpose of destroying the Ameri- 
can establishments at Astoria. The Raccoon arrived at the Columbia on 
the 1st of December, 1813. The surprise and disappointment of Captain 
Black and his o^icers were extreme, on learning the arrangement that had 
taken place between the two companies, by which the establishment had 
become British property. They had calculated on obtaining a splendid 
prize by the capture of Astoria, the strength and importance of which 
had been much magnified; and the contracting parties were therefore 
fortunate in having closed their bargain previous to the arrival of the 
Raccoon. On looking at the wooden fortifications. Captain Black ex- 
claimed, " Is this the fort about lohich I have heard so much? D — n me 
hut 1 'd batter it down in two hours ivith a four-pounder." Captain Black, 
however, took possession of Astoria in the name of his Britannic majesty, 



G.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 445 

and rebaptized it by the name of " Fort George.'" He also insisted on 
having an inventory taken of the valuable stock of furs, and all other 
property purchased from the American company, with a view to the adop- 
tion of ulterior proceedings in Eiigland for the recovery of the value from 
the North-West Company ; but he subsequently relinquished this idea, and 
we heard no more about his claims. 

The Indians at the moutli of the Columbia knew well that Great 
Britain and America were distinct nations, and that they were then at 
war, but were ignorant of the arrangement made between Messrs. McDou- 
gal and McTavish, the former of whom still continued as nominal 
chief at the fort. On the arrival of the Raccoon, which they quickly 
discovered to be one of "Kiiiff George's Jighting ships,'" they repaired, 
armed, to the fort, and requested an audience of Mr. McDougal. He 
was somewhat surprised at their numbers and warlike appearance, and 
demanded the object of such an unusual visit. Comcomly, the principal 
chief of the Chinooks, (whose daughter McDougal had married,) there- 
upon addressed him in a long speech, in the course of which he said that 
King George had sent a ship full of warriors, and loaded with nothing 
but big guns, to take the Americans and make them all slaves, and that, 
as they (the Americans) were the first white men who settled in their 
country, and treated the Indians like good relations, they had resolved to 
defend them from King George's warriors, and were now ready to conceal 
themselves in the woods close to the wharf, from whence they would be 
able, with their guns and arrows, to shoot all the men that should attempt 
to land from the English boats, while the people in the fort could fire at 
them with their big guns and rifles. This proposition was uttered with 
an earnestness of manner that admitted no doubt of its sincerity. Two 
armed boats from the Raccoon were approaching; and, had the people 
in the fort felt disposed to accede to the wishes of the Indians, every man 
in them would have been destroyed by an invisible enemy. Mr. McDou- 
gal thanked them for their friendly offer, but added, that, notwithstanding 
the nations were at war, the people in the boats would not injure him or 
any of his people, and therefore requested them to throw by their war 
shirts and arms, and receive the strangers as their friends. They at first 
seemed astonished at this answer; but, on assuring them, in the most 
positive manner, that he was under no apprehensions, they consented to 
give up their weapons for a few days. They afterwards declared they 
were sorry for having complied with Mr. McDougal's wishes ; for when 
they observed Captain Black, surrounded by his officers and marines, 
break the bottle of Port on the flag-staff, and hoist the British ensign, afl^er 
changing the name of the fort, they remarked that, however we might 
wish to conceal the fact, the Americans were undoubtedly made slaves; 
and they were not convinced of their mistake until the sloop of war had 
departed without taking any prisoners. 



446 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [^^ 

H. 

DOCUMENTS RELATIVE TO THE NEGOTIATION IN 1826—7. * 

British Statement annexed to the Protocol of the sixth Conference, by 
3Iessrs. Huskisson and Addiagton, Plenipotentiaries on the Part of 
Great Britain. 

The government of Great Britain, in proposing to renew, for a furtlier 
term of years, the third article of the convention of 1818, respecting the 
territory on the north-west coast of America, west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, regrets that it has been found impossible, in the present negotiation, 
to agree upon aline of boundary which should separate those parts of that 
territory, which might henceforward be occupied or settled by the subjects 
of Great Britain, from the parts which would remain open to occupancy 
and settlement by the United States. 

To establish such a boundary must be the ultimate object of both 
countries. With this object in contemplation, and from a persuasion that 
a part of the difficulties which have hitherto prevented its attainment is 
to be attributed to a misconception, on the part of the United States, of 
the claims and views of Great Britain in regard to the territory in ques- 
tion, the British plenipotentiaries deem it advisable to bring under the 
notice of the American plenipotentiary a full and explicit exposition of 
those claims and views. 

As preliminary to this discussion, it is highly desirable to mark dis- 
tinctly the broad difference between the nature of the rights claimed by 
Great Britain and those asserted by the United States, in respect to the 
territory in question. 

Over a large portion of that territory, namely, from the 42d degree 
to the 49th degree of north latitude, the United States claim full and ex- 
clusive sovereignty. 

Great Britain claims no exclusive sovereignty over any portion of that 
territory. Her present claim, not in respect to any part, but to the whole, 
is limited to a right of joint occupancy, in common with other states, 
leaving the right of exclusive dominion in abeyance. 

In other words, the pretensions of the United States tend to the ejec- 
tion of all other nations, and, among the rest, of Great Britain, from all 
right of settlement in the district claimed by the United States. 

The pretensions of Great Britain, on the contrary, tend to the mere 
maintenance of her own rights, in resistance to the exclusive character of 
the pretensions of the United States. 

Having thus stated the nature of the respective claims of the two 
parties, the British plenipotentiaries will now examine the grounds on 
wliich those claims are founded. 

* These two documents, which were published with President Adams's Message to 
Congress of" December I2th, JS27, are here inserted in full, because reference is fre- 
quently made to them in the History, particularly to the British paper, the numerous 
misstatements in which are exposed and refuted. See page 347, and other pages, as 
specified in the notes. 



H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 447 

The claims of the United States are urged upon three grounds : 
1st. As resulting from their own jjrojjcr right. 

2dly. As resulting from a right derived to them from Spain; that 
power having, by the treaty of Florida, concluded with the United States 
in 1819, ceded to the latter all their rights and claims on the western 
coast of America north of the 42d degree. 

odly. As resulting from a right derived to them from France, to 
whom the United States succeeded, by treaty, in possession of the 
province of Louisiana. 

The first right, or right proper, of the United States, is founded on 
the alleged discovery of the Columbia River by Mr. Gray, of Boston, 
who, in 1792, entered that river, and e.Kplored it to some distance from 
its mouth. 

To this are added the first exploration, by Lewis and Clarke, of a 
main branch of the same river, from its source downwards, and also the 
alleged priority of settlement, by citizens of the United States, of the 
country in the vicinity of the same river; 

The second right, or right derived from Spain, is founded on the alleged 
prior discovery of the region in dispute by Spanish navigators, of whom 
the chief were, 1st, Cabrillo, who, in lo4;5, visited that coast as far as 44 
degress north latitude; 2d, De Fucn, who, as it is affirmed, in 1598, 
entered the straits known by his name, in latitude 49 degrees; 3d, 
Gualle, who, in 1582, is said to have pushed his researches as hicrh as 
57 degrees north latitude; 4th, Perez, and others, who, between the years 
1774 and 1792, visited Nootka Sound and the adjacent coasts. 

The third right, derived from the cession of Louisiana to the United 
States, is founded on the assumption that that province, its boundaries 
never having been exactly defined longitudinally, may fairly be as- 
serted to extend westward across the Rocky Mountains, to the shore 
of the Pacific. 

Before the merits of these respective claims are considered, it is 
necessary to observe that one only out of the three can be valid. 

They are, in fact, claims obviously incompatible the one with the 
other. If, for example, the title of Spain by first discovery, or the title 
of France as the original possessor of Louisiana, be valid, then must one 
or the other of those kingdoms have been the lawful possessor of that 
territory, at the moment when the United States claim to have discovered 
it. If, on the other hand, the Americans were the first discoverers, there 
is necessarily an end of the Spanish claim; and if priority of discovery 
constitutes the title, that of France falls equally to the ground. 

Upon the question, how far prior discovery constitutes a legal claim to 
sovereignty, the law of nations is somewhat vague and undefined. It is, 
however, admitted by the most approved writers that mere accidental 
discovery, unattended by exploration — by formally taking possession in 
the name of the discoverer's sovereign — by occupation and settlement, 
more or less permanent — by purchase of the territory — or receiving the 
sovereignty from the natives — constitutes the lowest degree of title, and 
that it is only in proportion as first discovery is followed by any or all of 
these acts, that such title is strengthened and confirmed. 

The rights conferred by discovery, therefore, must be discussed on 
their own merits. 

But before the Bi'itish plenipotentiaries proceed to comppje the relative 



448 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. 

claims of Great Britain and the United States, in this respect, it will be 
advisable to dispose of the two other grounds of right, put forward by the 
United States. 

The second ground of claim, advanced by the United States, is the 
cession made by Spain to the United States, by the treaty of Florida, 
in 1819. 

If the conflicting claims of Great Brititin and Spain, in respect to all 
that part of the coast of North America, had not been finally adjusted by 
the convention of Nootka, in the year 1790, and if all the arguments and 
pretensions, whether resting on priority of discovei'y, or derived from any 
other consideration, had not been definitively set at rest by the signature 
of that convention, nothing would be more easy than to demonstrate that 
the claims of Great Britain to that country, as opposed to those of Spain, 
were so far from visionary, or arbitrarily assumed, that they established 
more than a parity of title to the possession of the country in question, 
either as against Spain, or any other nation. 

Whatever that title may have been, however, either on the part of 
Great Britain or on the part of Spain, prior to the convention of 1790, it 
was from thenceforward no longer to be traced in vague narratives of 
discoveries, several of them admitted to be apocryphal, but in the text and 
stipulations of that convention itself 

By that convention it was agreed that all parts of the north-western 
coast of America, not already occupied at that time by either of the con- 
tracting parties, should thenceforward be equally open to the subjects 
of both, for all purposes of commerce and settlement; the sovereignty 
remaining in abeyance. 

In this stipulation, as it has been already stated, all tracts of country 
claimed by Spain and Great Britain, or accruing to either, in whatever 
manner, were included. 

The rights of Spain on that coast were, by the treaty of Florida, in 
1819, conveyed by Spain to the United States. With those rights the 
United States necessarily succeeded to the limitations by which they 
were defined, and the obligations under which they were to be exercised. 
From those obligations and limitations, as contracted towards Great 
Britain, Great Britain cannot be expected gratuitously to release those 
countries, merely because the rights of the party originally bound have 
been transferred to, a third power. 

The third ground of claim of the United States rests on the right 
supposed to be derived from the cession to them of Louisiana by 
France. 

In arguing this branch of the question, it will not be necessary to 
examine in detail the very dubious point of the assumed extent of that 
province, since, by the treaty between France and Spain of 1763, the 
whole of that territory, defined or undefined, real or ideal, was ceded by 
France to Spain, and, consequently, belonged to Spain, not only in 1790, 
when the convention of Nootka was signed between Great Britain and 
Spain, but also subsequently, in 1793, the period of Gray's discovery of 
the mouth of the Columbia. If, then, Louisiana embraced the country 
west of the Rocky Mountains, to the south of the 49th parallel of latitude, 
it must have embraced the Columbia itself, which that parallel intersects; 
and, consequently, Gray's discovery must have been made in a country 
avowedly already appropriated to Spain, and, if so appropriated, neces- 



1 



H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 449 

sarily included, with all other Spanish possessions and claims in that 
quarter, in the stipulations of the Nootka convention. 

Even if it could be shown, therefore, that the district west of the 
Rocky Mountains was within the boundaries of Louisiana, that circum- 
stance would in no way assist the claim of the United States. 

It may, nevertheless, be worth while to expose, in a few words, the 
futility of the attempt to include that district within those boundaries. 

For this purpose, it is only necessary to refer to the original grant of 
Louisiana made to De Crozat by Louis XIV., shortly after its discovery 
by La Salle. That province is therein expressly described as " the 
country drained by the waters entering, directly or indirectly, into the 
Mississippi." Now, unless it can be shown that any of the tributaries 
of the Mississippi cross the Rocky Mountains from west to east, it is 
difficult to conceive how any part of Louisiana can be found to the west 
of that ridge. 

There remains to be considered the first ground of claim advanced 
by the: United States to the territory in question, namely, that founded 
on tlieir own proper right as first discoverers and occupiers of that 
territory. 

■If the discovery of the country in question, or rather the mere en- 
trance into the mouth of the Columbia by a private American citizen, be, 
as the United States assert, (although Great Britain is far from admiltino- 
the correctness of the assertion,) a valid ground of national and exclusive 
claim to all the country situated between the 4'2d and 49th parallels of 
latitude, then must any preceding discovery of the same country, by an 
individual of any other nation, invest such nation with a more valid, 
because a prior, claim to that country. 

Now, to set aside, for the present, Drake, Cook, and Vancouver, who all 
of them either took possession of, or touched at, various points of the coast 
in question. Great Britain can show that in 17S8 — that is, four years 
before Gray entered the mouth of the Columbia River — Mr. Meares,* 
a lieutenant of the royal navy, who had been sent by the East India 
Company on a trading expedition to the north-west coast of America, 
had already minutely explored that coast, from the 49th degree to the 45th 
degree north latitude; had taken formal possession of the Straits of De 
Fuca, in the name of his sovereign ; had purchased land, trafficked and 
formed treaties with the natives; and had actually entered the bay of the 
Columbia, to the northern headland of which he gave the name of Cape 
Disappointment — a name which it bears to this day. 

Dixon, Scott, Duncan, Strange, and other private British traders, had 
also visited these shores and countries several years before Gray ; but the 
single example of Meares suffices to quash Gray's claim to prior discovery. 
To the other navigators above mentioned, therefore, it is unnecessary to 
refer more particularly. 

It may be worth while, however, to observe, with regard to Meares, 
that his account of his voyages was published in London in August, 
1790; that is, two years before Gray is even pretended to have entered 
the Columbia. 

To that account are appended, first, extracts from his locr-book ; 
secondly, maps of the coasts and harbors which he visited, in which every 

• See p. 177. 
57 



450 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. 

part of the coast in question, including the hay of the Columbia, {into 
which the log expressly states that Meares entered,) is minutely laid down, 
its delineation tallying, in almost every particular, with Vancouver's sub- 
sequent survey, and with the description found in all the best maps of 
that part of the world, adopted at this moment; thirdly, the account in 
question actually contains an engraving, dated in August, 1790, of the 
entrance of De Fuca's Straits, executed after a design taken in June, 
1788, by Meares himself. 

With these physical evidences of authenticity, it is as needless to 
contend for, as it is impossible to controvert, the truth of Meares's 
statement. 

It was only on the 17th of September, 1788, that the Washington, 
commanded by Mr. Gray, first made her appearance at Nootka. 

If, therefore, any claim to these countries, as between Great Britain 
and the United States, is to be deduced from priority of the discovery, the 
above exposition of dates and facts suffices to establish that claim in favor 
of Great Britain, on a basis too firm to be shaken. 

It must, indeed, be admitted that Mr. Gray, finding himself n the 
bay formed by the discharge of the waters of the Columbia into the 
Pacific, was the first to ascertain that this bay formed the outlet oi a 
great river — a discovery which had escaped Lieutenant Meares, when, 
in 1788, four years before, he entered the same bay. 

But can it be seriously urged that this single step in the progress of 
discovery not only wholly supersedes the prior discoveries, both of the 
bay and the coast, by Lieutenant Meares, but equally absorbs the subse- 
quent exploration of the river by Captain Vancouver, for near a hundred 
miles above the point to which Mr. Gray's ship had proceeded, the formal 
taking possession of it by that British navigator,* in the name of his 
sovereign, and also all the other discoveries, explorations, and temporary 
possession and occupation of the ports and harbors on the coast, as well 
of the Pacific as within the Straits of De Fuca, up to the 49th parallel 
of latitude? 

This pretension, however, extraordinary as it is, does not embrace 
the whole of the claim which the United States build upon the limited 
discovery of Mr. Gray, namely, that the bay of which Cape Disappoint- 
ment is the northernmost headland, is, in fact, the embouchure of a 
river. That mere ascertainment, it is asserted, confers on the United 
States a title, in exclusive sovereignty, to the whole extent of country 
drained by such river, and by all its tributary streams. 

In support of this very extraordinary pretension, the United States 
allege the precedent of grants and charters accorded in former times to 
companies and individuals, by various European sovereigns, over several 
parts of the American continent. Amongst other instances are adduced 
the charters granted by Elizabeth, James I., Charles II., and George II., 
to sundry British subjects and associations, as also the grant made by 
Louis XIV. to De Crozat over the tract of country watered by the 
Mississippi and its tributaries. 

But can such charters be considered an acknowledged part of the 
law of nations? Were they any thing more, in fact, than a cession to 
the grantee or grantees of whatever rights the grantor might suppose 

* See p. 248. 



H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 451 

himself to possess, to tlie exclusion of other subjects of the same sov- 
ereign? — charters binding and restraining those only who were within 
the jurisdiction of the grantor, and of no force or validity against the 
subjects of other states, until recognized by treaty, and thereby becom- 
ing a part of international law.* 

Had the United States thought proper to issue, in 1790, by virtue of 
their national authority, a charter granting to Mr. Gray the whole extent 
of country watered, directly or indirectly, by the River Columbia, such a 
charter would, no doubt, have been valid in Mr. Gray's favor, as against 
all other citizens of the United States. But can it be supposed that it 
would have been acquiesced in by either of the powers. Great Britain 
and Spain, which, in that same year, were preparing to contest by arms 
the possession of the very country which would have been the subject of 
such a grant ] 

If the right of sovereignty over the territory in question accrues to 
the United States by Mr. Gray's discovery, how happens it that they never 
protested against the violence done to that right by the two powers, who, 
by the convention of 1790, regulated their respective rights in and over a 
district so belonging, as it is now asserted, to the United States? 

This claim of the United States to the territory drained by the Co- 
lumbia and its tributary streams, on the ground of one of their citizens 
having been the first to discover the entrance of that river, has been here 
so far entered into, not because it is considered to be necessarily entitled 
to notice, since the whole country watered by the Columbia falls within 
the provisions of the convention of 1790, but because the doctrine above 
alluded to has been put forward so broadly, and with such confidence, by 
the United States, that Great Britain considered it equally due to herself 
and to other powers to enter her protest against it. 

The United States further pretend that their claim to the country in 
question is strengthened and confirmed by the discovery of the sources of 
the Columbia, and by the exploration of its course to the sea by Lewis 
and Clarke, in 1805-6. 

In reply to this allegation, Great Britain affirms, and can distinctly 
prove, that, if not before, at least in the same and subsequent years, 
her North-Western Trading Company had, by means of their agent, Mr. 
Thomson, already established their posts among the Flat-head and Koo- 
tanie tribes, on the head-waters of the northern or main branch of the 
Columbia, and were gradually extending them down the principal stream 
of that river; thus giving to Great Britain, in this particular, again, as in 
the discovery of the mouth of the river, a title to parity at least, if not 
priority, of discovery, as opposed to the United States. It was from those 
posts, that, having heard of the American establishment forming in 1811, 
at the mouth of the river, Mr. Thomson hastened thither, descending the 
river, to ascertain the nature of that establishment. t 

Some stress having been laid by the United States on the restitution 
to them of Fort George by the British, after the termination of the last 
war, which restitution they represent as conveying a virtual acknowledg- 
ment by Great Britain of the title of the United States to the country in 
which that post was situated, — it is desirable to state, somewhat in detail, 
the circumstances attending that restitution. 

• See p. 350. t See p. 291, 297. 



452 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. 

In the year 1815, a demand for the restoration of Fort George was 
first made to Great Britain, by the American government, on the plea 
that the first article of the treaty of Ghent stipulated the restitution 
to the United States of all posts and places whatsoever, taken from them 
by the British during the war, in which description Fort George (Astoria) 
was included. 

For some time the British government demurred to comply with the 
demand of the United States, because they entertained doubts how far it 
could be sustained by the construction of the treaty. 

In the first place, the trading post called Fort Astoria (or Fort 
George) was not a national possession ; in the second place, it was not 
a military post ; and, thirdly, it was never captured from the Americans 
by the British. 

It was, in feet, conveyed in regular commercial transfer, and ac- 
companied by a bill of sale, for a sum of money, to the British company, 
who purchased it, by the American company, who sold it of tlidr oion 
free ivill. 

It is true that a British sloop of war had, about that time, been sent 
to take possession of that post, but she arrived subsequently to the trans- 
action above mentioned, between the two companies, and found the British 
company already in legal oceupation of their self-acquired property. 

In consequence, however, of that ship having been sent out with 
hostile views, although those views were not carried into effect, and in 
order that not even the shadow of a reflection might be cast upon the 
good faith of the British government, the latter determined to give the 
most liberal extension to the terms of the treaty of Ghent, and, in 1818, 
the purchase which the British company had made in 1813 was restored 
to the United States.* 

Particular care, however, was taken, on this occasion, to prevent 
any misapprehension as to the extent of the concession made by Great 
Britain. 

Viscount Castlereagh, in directing the British minister at Washington 
to intimate the intention of the: British government to Mr. Adams, then 
secretary of state, uses these expressions, in a despatch dated 4th of 
February, 1818: — 

"You will observe,, that, whilst this government is not disposed to 
contest with the American government the point of possession as it 
stood in the Columbia River at the moment of the rupture, they are not 
prepared to admit the validity of the title of the government of the United 
States to this settlement. 

" In signifying, therefore, to Mr. Adams the full acquiescence of your 
government in the reoccupation of the limited position which the United 
States held in that river at the breaking out of the war, you icill at the 
same time assert, in suitable terms, the claim of Great Britain to that terri- 
tory, upon which the American settlement must be considered as an 
encroachment." 

This instruction was executed verbally by the person to whom it 
was addressed. 

The following is a transcript of the act by which the fort was 
delivered up, by the British, into the hands of Mr. Prevost, the Amer- 
ican agent : — 

• See p. 309. 



H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 453 

" In obedience to the command of H. R. H. the prince regent, 
siffnijicd in a despatch from the 7-i^ht honorable the Harl Bathurst, 
addressed to the partners or agents of the North- West Company, bearing 
date the 27th of January, 1818, and in obedience to a subsequent order, 
dated the 26th July, from W. H. Slieritf, Esq., captain of H. M. ship 
Andromache, We, the undersigned, do, in conformity to the first article 
of the treaty of Ghent, restore to the government of the United States, 
through its agent, J. P. Prevost, Esq., the settlement of Fort George, 
on the Columbia River. 

" Given under our hands, in triplicate, at Fort George, (Columbia 
River,) this Gth day of October, 1818. 

" F. HiCKEY, Captain II. M. ship Blossom. 

" J. Keith, of the N. W. Co." 

The following is the despatch from Earl Bathurst to the partners of 
the North- West Company, referred to in the above act of cession : — 

" Downing Street, 27th January, 1818. 

" Intelligence having been received that the United States sloop of 
war Ontario has been sent by the American government to establish a 
settlement on the Columbia River, which was held by that state, on 
the breaking out of the last war, I am to acquaint you, that it is the 
prince regent's pleasure {without, however, admitting the right of that 
government to the possession in question) that, in pursuance of the first 
article of the treaty of Ghent, due facility sliould be given to the reoccu- 
pation of the said settlement by the officers of the United States; and I am 
to desire that you would contribute as much as lies in your power to 
the execution of his royal highness's commands. 

" I have, &c. &c., 

" Bathurst. 
" To the Partners or Agents of the North-West Company, 
residing on the Columbia River." 

The above documents put the case of the restoration of Fort Astoria 
in too clear a light to require further observation. 

The case, then, of Great Britain, in respect to the country west of the 
Rocky Mountains, is shortly this : — 

Admitting that the United States have acquired all the rights which 
Spain possessed, up to the treaty of Florida, either in virtue of discovery, 
or, as is pretended, in right of Louisiana, Great Britain maintains that the 
nature and extent of those rights, as well as of the rights of Great Britain, 
are fixed and defined by the convention of Nootka; that these rights are 
equal for both parties ; and that, in succeeding to the rights of Spain, 
under that convention, the United States must also have succeeded to the 
obligations which it imposed. 

Admitting, further, the discovery of Mr. Gray, to the extent already 
stated, Great Britain, taking the whole line of the coast in question, with 
its straits, harbors, and bays, has stronger claims, on the ground of prior 
discovery, attended with acts of occupancy and settlement, than the 
United States. 

Whether, therefore, the United States rest their claims upon the title 



454 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. 

of Spain, or upon that of prior discovery, or upon both, Great Britain is 
entitled to place her claims at least upon a parity with those of the 
United States. 

It is a fact, admitted by the United States, that, with the exception 
of the Columbia River, there is no river which opens far into the interior, 
on the whole western coast of the Pacific Ocean. 

In the interior of the territory in question, the subjects of Great 
Britain have had, for many years, numerous settlements and trading 
posts — several of these posts on the tributary streams of the Columbia, 
several upon the Columbia itself, some to the northward, and others to 
the southward, of that river; and they navigate the Columbia as the sole 
channel for the conveyance of their produce to the British stations nearest 
the sea, and for the shipment of it from thence to Great Britain. It is 
also by the Columbia and its tributary streams that these posts and 
settlements receive their annual supplies from Great Britain. 

In the whole of the territory in question, the citizens of the United 
States have not a single settlement or trading post. They do not use 
that river, either for the purpose of transmitting or receiving any produce 
of their own, to or from other parts of the world. 

In this state of the relative rights of the two countries, and of the 
relative exercise of those rights, the United States claim the exclusive 
possession of both banks of the Columbia, and, consequently, that of the 
river itself; offering, it is true, to concede to British subjects a conditional 
participation in that navigation, but subject, in any case, to the exclusive 
jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States. 

Great Britain, on her part, oifers to make the river the boundary; 
each country retaining the bank of the river contiguous to its own ter- 
ritories, and the navigation of it remaining forever free, and upon a foot- 
ing of perfect equality to both nations. 

To carry into effect this proposal, on our part. Great Britain would 
have to give up posts and settlements south of the Columbia. On the 
part of the United States, there could be no reciprocal withdrawing from 
actual occupation, as there is not, and never has been, a single American 
citizen settled north of the Columbia. 

The United States decline to accede to this proposal, even when 
Great Britain has added to it the further offer of a most excellent harbor, 
and an extensive tract of country on the Straits of De Fuca — a sacrifice 
tendered in the spirit of accommodation, and for the sake of a final 
adjustment of all differences, but which, having been made in this spirit, 
is not to be considered as in any degree recognizing a claim on the part 
of the United States, or as at all impairing the existing right of Great 
Britain over the post and territory in question. 

Such being the result of the recent negotiation, it only remains for 
Great Britain to maintain and uphold the qualified rights which she now 
possesses over the whole of the territory in question. These rights are 
recorded and defined in the convention of Nootka.* They embrace the 
right to navigate the waters of those countries, the right to settle in and 
over any part of them, and the right freely to trade with the inhabitants 
and occupiers of the same. 

These rights have been peaceably exercised ever since the date of 

* See considerations on the Nootka convention, at p. 213. 



H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 455 

that convention ; that is, for a period of near forty years. Under that 
convention, valuable British interests have grown up in those countries. 
It is fully admitted that the United States possess the same rights, 
although they have been exercised by them only in a single instance, 
and have not, since the year 1813, been exercised at all. But beyond 
these rights they possess none. 

To the interests and establishments which British industry and enter- 
prise have created. Great Britain owes protection. That protection will 
be given, both as regards settlement and freedom of trade and navigation, 
with every attention not to infringe the coordinate rights of the United 
States; it being the earnest desire of the British government, so long 
as the joint occupancy continues, to regulate its own obligations by the 
same rule which governs the obligations of any other occupying party. 

Fully sensible, at the same time, of the desirableness of a more 
definite settlement, as between Great Britain and the United States, the 
British government will be ready, at any time, to terminate the present 
state of joint occupancy by an agreement of delimitation; but such 
arrangement only can be admitted as shall not derogate from the rights 
of Great Britain, as acknowledged by treaty, nor prejudice the advantages 
which British subjects, under the same sanction, now enjoy in that part 
of the world. 

(2.) . 

American Counter-Statement annexed to the Protocol of the seventh Con- 
ference, hy Mr. Gallatin, the Plenipotentiary of the United States. 

The American plenipotentiary has read with attention the exposition 
of the claims and views of Great Britain in regard to the territory west 
of the Rocky or Stony Mountains, annexed by the British plenipotentia- 
ries to the protocol of the last conference, and assures them that it will 
receive from his government all the consideration to which it is so justly 
entitled. 

He will not make any observations on that part of the exposition, which, 
as explanatory of the views of the British government in reference to 
a continued joint occupancy, he can only refer to his government. The 
remarks he will now offer are necessarily limited to the respective claims 
of the two countries, and to the proposals for a definitive engagement 
which have been made by each party. 

Great Britain claims no exclusive sovereignty over any portion of the 
territory in question. Her claim extends to the whole, but is limited to 
a right of joint occupancy in common with other states, leaving the right 
of exclusive dominion in abeyance. She insists that hers and Spain's 
conflicting claims were finally adjusted by the convention of Nootka, in 
1790; that all the arguments and pretensions, whether resting upon prior- 
ity of discovery, or derived from any other consideration, were definitively 
set at rest by that convention ; that, from its date, it was only in its text 
and stipulations that the title, either on her part or on that of Spain, was 
to be traced ; and that it was agreed by that convention, that all the parts 
of the north-west coast of America, not previously occupied by either 



456 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. 

party, should thenceforward be equally open to the subjects of both, for 
all purposes of commerce and settlement, the sovereignty remaining in 
abeyance. 

It is then declared, that, in reference either to the rights derived to the 
United States from Spain, by virtue of the treaty of 1819, or to that supposed 
to be derived from the acquisition of Louisiana, which province did, in the 
year 1790, belong to Spain, the United States have, with these rights, 
necessarily succeeded to the limitations by which they were defined, and 
the obligations under which they were to be exercised, in conformity to 
the stipulations of the Nootka convention; whence it is gener;illy in- 
ferred, that, whilst it is fully admitted that the United States possess the 
same rights as Great Britain over the country in question, namely, to 
navigate its waters, to settle in any part of it, and freely to trade with the 
inhabitants and occupiers of the same, beyond these rights, the United 
States possessed none, and that they cannot, therefore, claim exclusive 
sovereignty over any part of the said territory. 

It will, in the first place, be observed, that, admitting that convention 
to be still in force, and of whatever construction it may be susceptible, 
this compact between Spain and Great Britain could only bind the parties 
to it, and can affect the claim of the United States so far only as it is de- 
rived from Spain. If, therefore, they have a claim in right of their own 
discoveries, explorations, and settlements, as this cannot be impaired by 
the Nootka convention, it becomes indispensably necessary, in order to 
defeat such claim, to show a better prior title on the part of Great Britain, 
derived from some other consideration than the stipulations of that con- 
vention. But, on examining that instrument, it will be found to be ap- 
parently merely of a commercial nature, and in no shape to affect the 
question of distinct jurisdiction and exclusive sovereignty. 

It was agreed, by that convention, " that the respective subjects of the 
two parties should not be disturbed or molested, either in navigating or 
carrying on their fisheries in the Pacific Ocean or in the South Seas, or 
in landing on the coast of those seas, in places not already occupied, for 
the purpose of carrying on their commerce with the natives of the coun- 
try, or of making settlements there." And further, " that in all places 

, wherever the subjects of either shall have made settlements since 

the month of April, 1789, or shall hereafter make any, the subjects of 
the other shall have free access, and shall carry on their trade without any 
disturbance or molestation." 

It is difficult to believe, on reading those provisions, and recollecting 
in what cause the convention originated, that any other settlements could 
have been contemplated than such as were connected with the commerce 
to be carried on with the natives. Indeed, it is as being only of a com- 
mercial nature, that the Nootka convention may be positively asserted to 
be now in force ; the commercial treaties between Great Britain and 
Spain having, subsequent to the war which had intervened, been alone 
renewed by the treaty of July, 1814. 

Admitting, however, that the word "settlement" was meant in its most 
unlimited sense, it is evident that the stipulations had not for object to 
settle the territorial claims of the parties, and had no connection with an 
ultimate partition of the country, for the purpose of permanent coloni- 
zation. 

Those stipulations permitted promiscuous aind intermixed settlements 



H-] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 457 

every where, and over the whole face of the country, to the subjects of 
both parties, and even declared every such settlement, made by either 
party, in a degree common to the other. Such a state of things is clearly 
incompatible with distinct jurisdiction and sovereignty. The convention, 
therefore, could have had no such object in view as to fix the relations of 
the contracting powers in that respect. On that subject it established or 
changed nothing, but left the parties where it found them, and in posses- 
sion of all such rights, whether derived from discovery, or from any other 
consideration, as belonged to each, to be urged by each, whenever the 
question of permanent and separate possession and sovereignty came to 
be discussed between them. 

It is, indeed, expressly admitted that the convention provided for com- 
merce and settlements, leaving the sovereignty in abeyance. And Great 
Britain, at this time, claims only a right of joint occupancy, in common 
with otljer nations, leaving the right of exclusive dominion in abeyance. It 
is not perceived how it can, at the same time, be asserted that the argu- 
ments and pretensions of both parties were definitively set at rest by the 
convention, and that it is only in its text and stipulations that the title on 
either side is now to be traced. 

Commerce and settlements might, indeed, be made by either party, 
during the joint occupancy, without regard to their respective pretension 
or title, from whatever consideration derived. But since the sovereignty, 
since the right of exclusive dominion, has been left in abeyance, that ricrht 
over any pnrt of the country, to whichever party belonging, has not been 
extinguished, but only suspended, and must revive to its full extent when- 
ever that joint occupancy may cease. 

Whenever, therefore, a finnl line of demarkation becomes the subject 
of discussion, the United States have a right, notwithstanding, and in 
conformity to the Nootka convention, to appeal, in support of their claims, 
not only to their own discoveries, but to all the rights derived from the 
acquisition of Louisiana, and from their treaty of 1819 with Spain, in the 
same manner as if that convention had never been made. The question 
to be examined is, whether those claims are supported by the laws and 
usages of nations. 

It may be admitted, as an abstract principle, that, in the origin of soci- 
ety, first occupancy and cultivation were the foundation of the rights of 
private property and of national sovereignty. But that principle, on which 
principally, if not exclusively, it would seem that the British goverinnent 
wishes to rely, could be permitted, in either case, to operate alone, and 
without restriction, so long only as the extent of vacant territory was 
such, in proportion to population, that there was ample room for every 
individual, and for every distinct community or nation, without danger of 
collision vvith others. As, in every society, it had soon become necessary 
to make laws, regulating the manner in which its members should be 
permitted to occupy and to acquire vacant land within its acknowledged 
boundaries, so, also, nations found it indispensable for the preservation 
of peace, and for the exercise of distinct jurisdiction, to adopt, particu- 
larly after the discovery of America, some general rules, which should 
determine the important previous question, " Who had a right to occupy?" 

The two rules generally, perhaps universally, recognized and conse- 
crated by the usage of nations, have flowed from the nature of the subject. 

By virtue of the first, prior discovery gave a right to occupy, provided 

58 



458 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. 

that occupancy took place within a reasonable time, and was ultimately 
followed by permanent settlements, and by the cultivation of the soil. 

In conformity with the second, the right derived from prior discovery 
and settlement was not confined to the spot so discovered or first settled. 
The extent of territory which would attach to such first discovery or set- 
tlement might not, in every case, be precisely determined. But tiiat the 
first discovery, and subsequent settlement, within a reasonable time, of 
the mouth of a river, particularly if none of its branches had been ex- 
plored prior to such discovery, gave the right of occupancy, and, ulti- 
mately, of sovereignty, to the whole country drained by such river and its 
several branches, has been generally admitted. And, in a question be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain, her acts have, with propriety, 
been appealed to, as showing that the principles on which they rely accord 
with her own. 

It is, however, now contended that the British charters, extending, in 
most cases, from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Seas, must be* consid- 
ered as cessions of the sovereign to certain grantees, to the exclusion only 
of his other subjects, and as of no validity against the subjects of other 
states. This construction does not appear either to have been that in- 
tended at the time by the grantors, nor to have governed the subsequent 
conduct of Great Britain. 

By excepting from the grants, as was generally the case, such lands as 
were already occupied by the subjects of other civilized nations, it was 
clearly implied that no other exception was contemplated, and that the 
grants were intended to include all the unoccupied lands within their re- 
spective boundaries, to the exclusion of all other persons or nations what- 
soever. In point of fact, the whole country drained by the several rivers 
emptying into the Atlantic Ocean, the mouths of which were within those 
charters, has, from Hudson's Bay to Florida, and, it is believed, without 
exception, been occupied and held by virtue of those charters. Not only 
has this principle been fully confirmed, but it has been notoriously en- 
forced, much beyond the sources of the rivers on which the settlements 
were formed. The priority of the French settlements on the rivers flow- 
ing westwardly from the Alleghany Mountains into the Mississippi, was 
altogether disregarded; and the rights of the Atlantic colonies to extend 
beyond those mountains, as growing out of the contiguity of territory, 
and as asserted in the earliest charters, was effectually and successfully 
enforced. 

It is true, that the two general rules which have been mentioned might 
often conflict with each other. Thus, in the instance just alluded to, the 
discovery of the main branch of the Mississippi, including the mouth of 
that river, and the occupation of the intervening province of Louisiana by 
another nation, gave rise, at last, to a compromise of those conflicting 
claims, and induced Great Britain to restrain hers within narrower limits 
than those originally designated. 

But it is the peculiar character of the claim of the United States, that 
it is founded on both principles, which, in this case, unite both in its sup- 
port, and convert it into an incontestable right. It is in vain that, in 
order to avert that conclusion, an attempt is made to consider the several 
grounds on which that right is urged, as incompatible one with the other, 
as if the United States were obliged to select only one, and to abandon 
the others. In different hands, the several claims would conflict one with 



H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 459 

the other. Now, united in the same power, they support each other. 
The possessors of Louisiana might have contended, on the ground of con- 
tiguity, for the adjacent territory on the Pacific Ocean, with the dis- 
coveries of the coast and of its main rivers. The several discoveries of 
the Spanish and American navigators might separately have been consid- 
ered as so many steps in the progress of discovery, and giving only 
imperfect claims to each party. All those various claims, from whatever 
consideration derived, are now brought united against the pretensions of 
any other nation. 

1st. The actual possession and populous settlements of the valley of 
the Mississippi, including Louisiana, and now under one sovereignty, con- 
stitute a strong claim to the westwardly extension of that province over 
the contiguous vacant territory, and to the occupation and sovereignty of 
the country as far as the Pacific Ocean. If some trading factories on the 
shores of Hudson's Bay have been considered, by Great Britain, as giving 
an exclusive right of occupancy as far as the Rocky Mountains ; if the 
infant settlements on the more southern Atlantic shores justified a claim 
thence to the South Seas, and which was actually enforced to the Missis- 
sippi, that of the millions already within reach of those seas cannot con- 
sistently be resisted. For it will not be denied that the extent of 
contiguous territory, to which an actual settlement gives a prior right, 
must depend, in a considerable degree, on the magnitude and population 
of that settlement, and on the facility with which the vacant adjacent land 
may, within a short time, be occupied, settled, and cultivated, by such 
population, as compared with the probability of its being thus occupied 
and settled from any other quarter. 

It has been objected that, in the grant of Louisiana toCrozat, by Louis 
XIV., that province is described as " the country drained by the wa- 
ters emptying, directly or indirectly, into the Mississippi, excluding 
thereby, by implication, the country drained by the waters emptying into 
the Pacific. 

Crozat's grant was not for the whole of the province of Louisiana, as it 
was afterwards extended by France herself, and as it is now held by the 
United States. It was bounded, in that grant of 1712, by Carolina to the 
east, by New Mexico to the west, and on the north by the Illinois, which 
were then part of Canada. The most northerly branches of the Missis- 
sippi embraced in the grant were tJie Ohio, at that time called Wabash 
by the French, and the Missouri, the true course of which was not 
known at that time, and the sources of which were not supposed to ex- 
tend north of the 42d parallel of latitude. No territory on the west of 
the Mississippi was intended to be included in the grant north of that par- 
allel ; and as New Mexico, which bounded it on the west, was understood 
to extend even farther north, it was impossible that any territory should 
have been included west of the sources of the rivers emptying into the 
Mississippi. 

All the territory north of the42d parallel of latitude, claimed by France, 
was included at that time, not in Louisiana, but in the government of New 
France, as Canada was then called. And by referring to the most authen- 
tic French maps, it will be seen that New France was made to extend 
over the territory drained, or supposed to be drained, by rivers entering 
into the South Seas. The claim to a westwardly extension to those seas, 
was thus early asserted as part, not of Louisiana, but of New France. 



460 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. 

The king had reserved to himself, in Crozat's grant, the right of enlarging 
the government of Louisiana. This was done by an ordonnance dated in 
the year 1717, which annexed the Illinois to it ; and, from tliat time, the 
province extended as far as the most northern limit of the French posses- 
sions in North America, and thereby west of Canada or New France. 
The settlement of that northern limit still further strengthens the 
claim of the United States to the territory west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. 

The limits between the northerly possessions of Great Britain, in 
North America, and those of France, in the same quarter, namely, Can- 
ada and Louisiana, were determined by commissioners appointed in pur- 
suance of the treaty of Utrecht. From the coast of Labrador to a certain 
point north of Lake Superior, those limits were fixed according to certain 
metes and bounds, and from that point the line of demarkation was 
agreed to extend indetinilely due west, along the 49th parallel of north 
latitude. It was in conformity with that arrangement that the United 
States did claim that parallel as the northern boundary of Louisiana. It 
has been, accordingly, thus settled, as far as the Stony Mountains, by the 
convention of 1818, between the United States and Great Britain; and 
no adequate reason can be given why the same boundary should not be 
continued as far as the claims of the United States do extend ; that is to 
say, as far as the Pacific Ocean. This argument is not weakened by the 
fict, that the British settlements west of the Stony Mountains are solely 
due to the extension of those previously formed on the waters emptying 
into Hudson's Bay ; and it is from respect to a demarkation, considered as 
binding on the parties, that the United States had consented to confine 
their claim to the 49th parallel of latitude, namely, to a territory of the 
same breadth as Louisiana east of the Stony Mountains, although, as 
founded on prior discoveries, that claim would have extended much farther 
north. 

2dly. The United States have an undoubted right to claim, by virtue 
both of the Spanish discoveries and of their own. Setting aside all those 
which are not supported by authentic evidence, some of the most impor- 
tant were made by Spanish navigators prior to Cook's voyage. In 1774, 
Perez, in the Spanish corvette Santiago, discovered Nootka Sound, in 
latitude 49° 30', and sailed to the 55th degree, discovering Lougara 
Island and Perez (now called Dixon's) Entrance, north of Queen Char- 
lotte Island. In 1775, Quadra, in the Spanish schooner Felicidad, of 
which Maurelle was pilot, discovered various ports between the 5oth 
and 58th degrees, and explored the coast from 42° to 54°, landing at 
several places, imposing names to some, and not being, at any time, 
hardly more than ten leagues from the shore. 

In other Spanish voyages of a subsequent date, those of Arteaga and 
Quadra in 1779, and of Martinez and Ilaro in 1786, various other parts 
of the north-west coast were explored, as far north as the GOth degree of 
north latitude. 

The Straits of Fuca were discovered, or again found, in 1787, by Cap- 
tain Bnrclay, of the Imperial Eagle, a vessel fitted out at Ostend. The 
entrance was, in 1788, again visited by the English Captains Meares and 
Duncan. In the same year. Captain Gray, of the American sloop Wash- 
ington, (who arrived at Nootka in September, coming from the south, 
where he had landed,) penetrated fifty miles up the straits. They were 



H-] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 461 

explored in 1791, by the Spanish Captains Quimpa and Eliza, beyond the 
50th degree of latitude. Their complete survey, and the discovery of 
the northern outlet, in 1792, are due principally to Captain Vancouver, 
who sailed through them in company with the Spanish vessels Sutil and 
Mexicana. 

The discovery, which belongs exclusively to the United States, and in 
their own right, is that of the River Columbia. 

The continuity of the coast from the 4"2d to the 48th degree of latitude, 
had been ascertained by the voyage of Quadra, in 1775, and confirmed 
by that of Captain Cook in 1778. The object of discovery thenceforth, 
was that of a large river, which should open a communication with 
the interior of the country. This had escaped Quadra, who had sailed in 
sight of the entrance afterwards discovered. Meares failed likewise in his 
attempt, in the year 1788, to make the discovery. Captain Vancouver 
was not more fortunate. After having also sailed along the coast, from 
south to north, to the 48th degree, he recorded in his journal of the 29th 
April, 1792, which he had too much probity afterwards to alter, his opin- 
ion that there was no large river south of 48', but only small creeks. On 
the ensuing day he met at sea with Captain Gray, then commanding the 
American ship " Columbia," who informed him of the existence of the 
river, at the mouth of which he (Gray) had been for several days without 
being able to enter it. 

Captain Vancouver proceeded to Fuca's Straits, and Captain Gray 
returned to the south, where he completed his discovery, liaving, on the 
11th May, entered the river which bears the name of his ship, and as- 
cended it upwards of twenty miles. He then, having also discovered 
Gray's Harbor, went to Nootka Sound, where he again met with Captain 
Vancouver, to whom he communicated his discoveries, and gave him a 
rough chart of the river. With this information, one of Captain Vaticou- 
ver's officers was sent to take a survey of Gray's Harbor, and another that 
of the Columbia River, which he ascended about eight miles higher up 
than Gray. 

Yet, in order to found a claim derived from a share in the discovery, 
that of Captain Gray is called only a stcj) in the progress of discovery ; 
and it is attempted to divide its merit between him, Meares, and Captain 
Vancouver's officer. 

It must again be repeated, that the sole object of discovery was 
" the river," and, coming from sea, the mouth of the river. Meares 
only followed Quadra's track. Had he suggested or suspected the ex- 
istence of a river, when he was near its entrance, it would have been a 
step in the progress of discovery. So far from it, that, in his map, he has 
laid the presumed mouth of the great river of the west, of the tradi- 
tional Oregon, of the real Columbia, in the Straits of Fuca. The very 
names which he imposed, Cape Disappointment and Deception Bay, attest 
his failure. 

Captain Vancouver, having completed his survey of that part of the 
coast, with a conviction that no large river emptied there into the ocean, 
would not have explored it again, had he not received the information from 
Captain Gray of his discoveries. And, in fact, in his second visit to that 
quarter, lie surveyed, or caused to be surveyed, only the harbor and the 
river which had been indicated to him. The lieutenant sent to the Co- 



462 PROOFS AND lLLUSTRATIOx\S. [H* 

lumbia, and who never would have gone there had it not been for Captain 
Gray's information, performed, no doubt, with fidelity, the mechanical 
duty of taking the soundings one hundred miles up its course. In that 
consists his sole merit : in the discovery he had not the slightest share. 
The important services rendered to navigation and to science, by that offi- 
cer and by Captain Vancouver, are fully acknowledged; and their well- 
earned reputation cannot be increased by ascribing to them what exclu- 
sively belongs to another. 

Louisiana having been actjuired by the United States in 1803, an 
expedition was inunediately ordered by government to examine its west- 
ern districts. In the course of this. Captains Lewis and Clarke ascended 
the Missouri to its source, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and ex- 
plored the course of the Columbia, from its most eastern sources to its 
mouth, where they arrived on the 6th of November, 1805. There they 
erected the works called Fort Clatsop, and wintered in 1805-1806. And 
thus was the discovery of the river commenced and completed by 
the United States, before, as it is firmly believed, any settlement had 
been made on it, or any of its branches been explored, by any other 
nation. 

This is corroborated by the statement of the British plenipotentiaries. 
After having given, as the date of Lewis and Clarke's exploration, not 
the year 1805, but the years 1805-1806, they assert that, if not before, at 
least in the same and subsequent years, Mr. Thomson had already estab- 
lished a post on the head-waters of the northern or main branch of the 
Columbia. Had that post been established in 1805, before Lewis and 
Clarke's exploration, another and more distinct mode of expression would 
have been adopted. But it cannot be seriously contended that, if Mr. 
Thomson had, in that year, reached one of the sources of the Colum- 
bia, north of the 50th degree of latitude, this, compared with the 
complete American exploration, would give to Great Britain " a title 
to parity, at least, if not priority of discovery, as opposed to the United 
States." 

In the year 1810, Mr. Astor, a citizen of the United States, fitted out 
two expeditions for the mouth of the Columbia ; one by sea, and the other 
by land, from the Missouri. In March, 181 1, the establishment of Astoria 
was accordingly commenced near the mouth of the river, before any Brit- 
ish settlement had been made south of the 49th parallel of latitude. 
From that principal post, several other settlements were formed ; one of 
them, contrary to the opinion entertained by the British plenipotentiaries, 
at the mouth of the Wanahata, several hundred miles up, and on the right 
bank of the Columbia. 

These establishments fell into the hands of the British during the 
war ; and that of Astoria has since been formally restored, in conformity 
with the treaty of Ghent. On the circumstances of that restitution, it is 
sufficient to observe, that, with the various despatches from and to the 
officers of the British government, the United States have no concern ; 
that it is not stated how the verbal communications of the British minister 
at Washington were received, nor whether the American government 
consented to accept the restitution, with th^ reservation, as expressed in 
the despatches to that minister from his government ; and that the only 
written document affijcting the restoration, known to be in possession of 



H.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 463 

that of the United States, is the act of restoration itself, wliich contains 
no exception, reservation, or protest, whatever. 

It has thus been established, that the Columbia River was iirst discov- 
ered by the United States ; that that first discovery was attended by a com- 
plete exploration of the river, from its most easterly source to the nerlh, 
before any such exploration had been made by any other nation ; by a 
simultaneous actual occupation and possession, and by subsequent estab- 
lishments and settlements made within a reasonable time, and which have 
been interrupted only by the casualties of war. 

This, it is contended, gives, according to the acknowledged law and 
usages of nations, a right to the whole country drained by that river and 
by its tributary streams, which could have been opposed only by the con- 
flicting claim derived from the possession of Louisiana. Both, united and 
strengthened by the other Spanish and American discoveries along the 
coast, (and, without reference to the cession of the pretensions of Spain, 
derived from other considerations,) establish, it is tirmly believed, a 
stronger title to the country above described, and along the coast as far 
north, at least, as the 49th parallel of latitude, than has ever, at any for- 
mer time, been asserted by any nation to vacant territory. 

Before the subject is dismissed, it may be proper to observe, that the 
United States had no motive, in the year 1790, to protest against the 
Nootka convention, since their exclusive right to the territory on the 
Pacific originated in Gray's discovery, which took place only in 1792. 
The acquisition of Louisiana, and their last treaty with Spain, are still 
posterior. 

On the formality called " taking possession," though no actual pos- 
session of the country is taken, and on the validity of sales of land and 
surrender of sovereignty by Indians, who are for the first time brought 
into contact with civilized men ; who have no notion of what they mean 
by either sovereignty or property in land ; who do not even know what 
cultivation is ; with whom it is difficult to communicate, even upon visible 
objects ; the American plenipotentiary thinks that he may abstain from 
making any remarks. 

Whilst supporting their claim by arguments, which they think conclu- 
sive, the United States have not been inattentive to the counter claims of 
Great Britain. 

They, indeed, deny that the trading posts of the North- West Company 
give any title to the territory claimed by America, not only because no 
such post was established within the limits claimed when the first Ameri- 
can settlement was made, but because the title of the United States is con- 
sidered as having been complete, before any of those traders had appeared 
on the waters of the Columbia. It is also believed, that mere factories, 
established solely for the purpose of trafficking with the natives, and with- 
out any view to cultivation and permanent settlement, cannot, of them- 
selves, and unsupported by any other consideration, give any better title to 
dominion and absolute sovereignty, than similar establishments made in a 
civilized country. 

But the United States have paid due regard to the discoveries by 
which the British navigators have so eminently distinguished themselves, 
to those, perhaps not less remarkable, made by land from the upper 
lakes of the Pacific, and to the contiguity of the possessions of Great 



464 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. 

Britain, on the waters of Hudson's Bay, to the territory bordering on that 
ocean. Above all, they have been earnestly desirous to preserve and 
cherish, not only the peacetul, but the friendly relations, which happily 
subsist between the two countries. And, with that object in view, their 
offer of a permanent line of demarkation has been made, under a perfect 
conviction that it was attended with the sacrifice of a portion of what they 
might justly claim. » 

Viewed as a matter of mutual convenience, and with equal desire, on 
both sides, to avert, by a definitive line of delimitation, any possible cause 
of collision in that quarter, every consideration connected with the sub- 
ject may be allowed its due weight. 

If the present state of occupancy is urged, on the part of Great 
Britain, the probability of the manner in which the territory west of the 
Rocky Mountains must be settled, belongs also essentially to the subject. 
Under whatever nominal sovereignty that country may be placed, and 
whatever its ultimate destinies may be, it is nearly reduced to a certainty, 
that it will be almost exclusively peopled by the surplus population of 
the United States. The distance from Great Britain, and the expense in- 
cident to emigration, forbid the expectation of any being practicable, 
from that quarter, but on a comparatively small scale. Allowing the rate 
of increase to be the same in the United States, and in the North Ameri- 
can British possessions, the difference in the actual population of both is 
such, that the progressive rate which would, within forty years, add three 
millions to these, would, within the same time, give a positive increase of 
more than twenty millions to the United States. And if circumstances, 
arising from localities and habits, have given superior facilities to British 
subjects, of extending their commerce with the natives, and to that expan- 
sion which has the appearance, and the appearance only, of occupancy, — 
the slower but sure progress and extension of an agricultural population, 
will be regulated by distance, by natural obstacles, and by its own amount. 
The primitive right of acquiring property and sovereignty, by occupancy 
alone, admitting it to be unlimited in theory, cannot extend beyond the 
capacity of occupying and cultivating the soil. 

It may also be observed, that, in reality, there were but three na- 
tions which had both the right and the power to colonize the territory 
in question — Great Britain, the United States, and Spain, or now the 
new American states. These are now excluded, in consequence of the 
treaty of 1819. The United States, who have purchased their right for a 
valuable consideration, stand now in their place, and, on that ground, in 
the view entertained of the subject by the British government, are, on a 
final partition of the country, fairly entitled to two shares. 

Under all the circumstances of the case, as stated on both sides, the 
United States offer a line, which leaves to Great Britain by far the best 
portion of the fur trade, — the only object, at this time, of the pursuits of 
her subjects in that quarter, — and a much greater than her proportionate 
share of the country, with a view to its permanent settlement, if the rela- 
tive geographical situation, and means of colonizing, of both parties are 
taken into consideration. From the 42d degree of north latitude to 
the Observatory Inlet, in about 55° 30', there is a front on the Pacific 
of almost fourteen degrees of latitude, which the 49th parallel divides 
into two nearly equal parts. The mouth of the Columbia River, if 



I-] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 465 

accepted as a boundary, would leave less than one third to the United 
States. 

The offer of the free navigation of that river, when the whole territory, 
drained by all its tributary streams, including the northernmost branches, 
might have been justly claimed, would have also given to Great Britain, 
in time of peace, all the commercial advantages which it can afford to 
the Americans. 

In the case of a war, (which God forbid,) whatever might be the result 
on shore, the line proposed by Great Britain, even with the addition of 
the detached and defenceless territory she offered, would leave the sea 
border at her mercy, and the United States without a single port; whilst 
the boundary proposed by them might, during that period, deprive Great 
Britain only of the use of the port at the mouth of the Columbia, and 
would leave her in the secure possession of numerous seaports, perhaps less 
convenient, but still affording ample means of communication with the 
interior. That line, indeed, with such slight reciprocal modifications as 
the topography of the country may indicate, would establish the most 
natural and mutually-defensible boundary that can be found, and, for that 
reason, the least liable to collision, and the best calculated to perpetuate 
peace and harmony between the two powers. 



I. 



Documents relating to the Hudson's Bat Company. 

This company was incorporated by a charter from King Charles II. 
of England, issued on the 16th of May, 1669; a few extracts from which 
will be sufficient to show the powers of the company and the extent of its 
territories under that grant. 

His Majesty's Royal Charter to the Governor and Company of Hud- 
son's Bay. 

" Charles the Second, by the grace of God, king of England, &c., to 
all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting : Whereas our dearly 
beloved cousin, Prince Rupert [and seventeen others, whose names and 
titles follow] have, at their own great cost and charges, undertaken an ex- 
pedition for Hudson's Bay, in the north-west parts of America, for the dis- 
covery of a new passage into the South Sea, and for the finding of some 
trade for furs, minerals, and other considerable commodities ; and by such 
their undertaking have already made such discoveries as do encourao-e them 
to proceed farther in performance of their said design, by means whereof 
there may probably arise great advantage to us and our kingdoms; and 
59 



466 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [L 

whereas the said undertakers, for their further encouragement in the said 
design, have humbJy besought us to incorporate them, and to grant imto 
them and their successors the whole trade and commerce of all those 
seas, straits and bays, rivers, lakes, creeks and sounds, in whatsoever lati- 
tude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits commonly 
called Hudson's Straits, together with all the lands, countries, and terri- 
tories, upon the coasts and confines of the seas, straits, bays, lakes, rivers, 
creeks, and sounds, aforesaid, which are not now actually possessed by 
any of our subjects, or by the subjects of any other Christian prince 
or state ; — 

" Now, know ye, that we, being desirous to promote all endeavors that 
may tend to the public good of our people, and to encourage the said 
undertaking, have, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere 
motion, given, granted, ratified, and confirmed, and by these presents, for 
us and our successors, do give, grant, ratify, and confirm, unto our said 
cousin, Prince Rupert, &,c., that they and such others as shall be ad- 
mitted into the said society, as is hereafter expressed, shall be one body 
corporate and politic, in deed and in name, by the name of The Governor 
and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay, 
* * * and at all times hereafter, shall be personable, and capable in 
law, to have, purchase, receive, possess, enjoy, and retain lands, rents, 
privileges, liberties, jurisdiction, franchises, and hereditaments, of what 
kind, nature, or quality soever they be, to them and their successors." 

By succeeding sections of the charter, provisions are made — for the 
election of a governor, a deputy governor, and a committee of seven 
members, who are to have the direction of all voyages, sales, and other 
business of the company — for the election of new members — and for 
holding, at particular periods, a general court of the company. The 
first company and their successors are made lords proprietors of the 
territories above mentioned, holding the lands " in free and common 
socage, and not incapite, or by knights' service;" and they are em- 
powered to make all laws and regulations for the government of their 
possessions, which may "be reasonable, and not contrary or repugnant, 
but as near as may be agreeable, to the laws, statutes, and customs," of 
England. The whole trade, fishery, navigation, minerals, &c., of the 
countries, is granted to the company exclusively ; all others of the king's 
subjects being forbidden to " visit, haunt, frequent, trade, traffic, or 
adventure," therein, under heavy penalties; and the company is more- 
over empowered " to send ships, and to build fortifications, for the de- 
fence of its possessions, as well as to make war or peace with all nations 
or people, not Christian, inhabiting those territories, which are declared 
to be thenceforth " reckoned and reputed as one of his majesty's plan- 
tations or colonies, in America, called Rupert's Land." 

Thus it will be seen, that the Hudson's Bay Company possessed by its 
charter almost sovereign powers over the vast portion of America drained 
by streams entering Hudson's Bay. With regard to the other countries 
in British America, north and west of Canada, not included in the Hud- 
son's Bay Company's possessions, and which were termed, generally, the 
Indian countries, an act was passed on the 11th of August, 1803, in the 
43d year of the reign of King George HI., entitled, 



L] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 467 



(2.) 

" An Act for extending the Jurisdiction of the Courts of Justice in the 
Provinces of Loioer and Upper Canada to the Trial and Punishment 
of Persons guilty of Crimes and Offences within certain Parts of 
North America, adjoining to the said Provinces." 

By this act, offences committed within the Indian territories were to 
be tried in the same manner as if committed within the provinces of 
Lower and Upper Canada ; the governor of Lower Canada may em- 
power persons to act as justices of the peace for the Indian territories, 
for committing offenders until they are conveyed to Canada for trial, 6lc. 
This act remained in force until July 2d, 1821 when was passed, 



(3.) 

" An Act for regulating the Fur Trade, and establishing a Criminal and 
Civil Jurisdiction, loithin certain Parts of North America* 

" Whereas the competition in the fur trade between the Governor and 
Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay, and cer- 
tain associations of persons trading under the name of ' The North-West 
Company of Montreal,' has been found, for some years past, to be pro- 
ductive of great inconvenience and loss, not only to the said company and 
associations, but to the said trade in general, and also of great injury to 
the native Indians, and of other persons, subjects of his majesty : And 
whereas the animosities and feuds arising from such competition have 
also, for some years past, kept the interior of America, to the northward 
and westward of the provinces of Upper and Loicer Canada, and of the 
territories of the United States of America, in a state of continued disturb- 
ance: And whereas many breaches of the peace, and violence, extending 
to the loss of lives, and considerable destruction of property have continu- 
ally occurred therein : And whereas, for remedy of such evils, it is expe- 
dient and necessary that some more effectual regulations should be estab- 
lished for the apprehending, securing, and bringing to justice, all persons 
committing such offences, and that his majesty should be empowered 
to regulate the said trade : And whereas doubts have been entertained, 
whether the provisions of an act passed in the forty-third year of the reign 
of his late jnajesty, King George the Third, intituled 'An Act for extend- 
ing the jurisdiction of the courts of justice in the provinces oi Lower and 
Upper Canada to the trial and punishment of persons guilty of crimes and 
offences within certain parts of North America, adjoining to the said prov- 
inces,' extended to the territories granted by charter to the said governor 
and company ; and it is expedient that such doubts should be removed, 
and that the said act should be further extended : Be it therefore 
enacted, by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and 
consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present 
Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That, from and 

* See p. 325. 



468 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [L 

after the passing of this act, it shall be lawful for his majesty, his heirs or 
successors, to make grants or give his royal license, under the hand and 
seal of one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, to any body cor- 
porate or company, or person or persons, of or for the exclusive privilege 
of trading with the Indians in all such parts o? North America as shall be 
specified in any such grants or licenses respectively, not being part of 
the lands or territories heretofore granted to the said Governor and Com- 
pany of Adventurers of -Ewo^/anr/ trading to Hudsoti's Bay, and not being 
part of any of his majesty's provinces in North America, or of any lands 
or territories belonging to the United States oi America ; and all such 
grants and licenses shall be good, valid, and effectual, for the purpose of 
securing to all such bodies corporate, or companies, or persons, the sole 
and exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in all such parts of 
North Amei-ica, (except as hereinafter excepted,) as shall be specified in 
such grants or licenses, any thing contained in any act or acts of Parlia- 
ment, or any law, to the contrary notwithstanding. 

" II. Provided always, and be it further enacted. That no such grant 
or license, made or given by his majesty, his heirs or successors, of any 
such exclusive privileges of trading with the Indians in such parts of 
North America as aforesaid, shall be made or given for any longer period 
than twenty-one years ; and no rent shall be required or demanded for or 
in respect of any such grant or license, or any privileges given thereby 
under the provisions of this act, for the first period of twenty-one years ; 
and from and after the expiration of such first period of twenty-one years, 
it shall be lawful for his majesty, his heirs or successors, to reserve such 
rents in any future grants or licenses to be made to the same or any other 
parties, as shall be deemed just and reasonable, with security for the pay- 
ment thereof; and such rents shall be deemed part of the land revenues 
of his majesty, his heirs and successors, and be applied and accounted for 
as the other land revenues of his majesty, his heirs or successors, shall, 
at the time of payment of any such rent being made, be applied and ac- 
counted for. 

" III. And be it further enacted. That, from and after the passing of 
this act, the Governor and Company of Adventurers trading to Hudson's 
Bay, and every body corporate, and company, and person, to whom every 
such grant or license shall be made or given, as aforesaid, shall respec- 
tively keep accurate registers of all persons in their employ in any parts 
of North America, and shall, once in each year, return 'to his majesty's sec- 
retaries of state accurate duplicates of such registers, and shall also enter 
into such security as shall be required by his majesty for the due execu- 
tion of all processes, criminal and civil, as well within the territories 
included in any such grant, as within those granted by charter to the 
Governor and Company of Adventurers trading to Hudson's I^ay, and for 
the producing or delivering into safe custody, for purpose of trial, of all 
persons in their employ or acting under their authority, who shall be 
charged with any criminal offence, and also for the due and faithful 
observance of all such rules, regulations, and stipulations, as shall be con- 
tained in any such grant or license, either for diminishing or preventing 
the sale or distribution of spirituous liquors to the Indians, or for pro- 
moting their moral and religious improvement, or for any other object 
which his majesty may deem necessary for the remedy or prevention of 
the other evils which have hitherto been found to exist. 



L] proofs and illustrations. 469 

" IV. And whereas, by a convention entered into between his majesty 
and the United States of ^/«c/-/fa, it was stipulated and agreed that any 
country on the north-west coast o( America to the westward of tlic Stoiii/ 
Mountains, should be free and open to the citizens and subjects of the 
two powers, for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of 
that convention ; Be it therefore enacted, That nothing in this act con- 
tained shall be deemed or construed to authorize any body corporate, 
company, or person, to whom his majesty may have, under the provisions 
of this act, made a grant or given a license of exclusive trade with the 
Indians in such parts oi North America as aforesaid, to claim or exercise 
any such exclusive trade within the limits specified in the said article, to 
the prejudice or exclusion of any citizens of the said United States of 
America, who may be engaged in the said trade : Provided always, that 
no British subject shall trade with the Indians within such limits without 
such grant or license as is by this act required. 

" V. And be it declared and enacted. That the said act, passed in the 
forty-third year of the reign of his late majesty, intituled An Act for ex- 
tending the jtirisdiction of the courts of justice in the provinces q/" Lower 
awr/ Upper Canada, to the trial and punishment of persons guilty of crimes 
and ojfences toithin certain parts of North America adjoining to the said 
provinces, and all the clauses and provisoes therein contained, shall be 
deemed and construed, and it is and are hereby respectively declared, to 
extend to and over, and to be in full force in and through, all the territo- 
ries heretofore granted to the Company of Adventurers of England trading 
to Hudson's Bay ; any thing in any act or acts of Parliament, or this act, 
or in any grant or charter to the company, to the contrary notwithstanding. 

" VI. And be it further enacted, That, from and after the passing of 
this act, the courts of judicature now existing, or which may be hereafter 
established in the province of Upper Canada, shall have the same civil 
jurisdiction, power, and authority, as well in the cognizance of suits as in 
the issuing process, mesne and final, and in all other respects whatsoever, 
within the said Indian territories, and other parts of America not within 
the limits of either of the provinces of Lower or Upper Canada, or of any 
civil government of the United States, as the said courts have or are 
invested with within the limits of the said provinces of Lower or Upper 
Canada respectively ; and that all and every contract, agreement, debt, 
liability, and demand whatsoever, made, entered into, incurred, or arising 
within the said Indian territories and other parts of America, and all and 
every wrong and injury to the person, or to property, real ox personal, com- 
mitted or done within the same, shall be, and be deemed to be, of the same 
nature, and be cognizable by the same courts, magistrates, or justices of the 
peace, and be tried in the same manner, and subject to the same conse- 
quences, in all respects, as if the same had been made, entered into, incurred, 
arisen, committed, or done, within the said province of Upper Canada ; any 
thing in any act or acts of Parliament, or grant, or charter, to the contrary 
notwithstanding: Provided always, thiit all such suits and actions relating 
to lands, or to any claims in respect of land, not being within the province 
of Upper Canada, shall be decided according to the laws of that part of 
the United Kingdom called England, and shall not be subject to or afiectcd 
by any local acts, statutes, or laws, of the legislature of Upper Canada. 

" VII. And be it further enacted, That all process, writs, orders, judg- 
ments, decrees, and acts whatsoever, to be issued, made, delivered, given, 
and done, by or under the authority of the said courts, or either of them, 



470 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [L 

shall have tne same force, authority, and effect, within the said Indian 
territory and other parts o^ America as aforesaid, as the same now have 
within the said province of Upper Canada. 

" VIII. And be it further enacted. That it shall be lawful for the gov- 
ernor, or lieutenant-governor, or person administering the government 
for the time being, of Lower Canada, by commission under his hand and 
seal, to authorize all persons who shall be appointed justices of the peace 
under the provisions of this act, within the said Indian territories, or other 
parts oi America as aforesaid, or any other person who shall be specially 
named in any such commission, to act as a commissioner within the same, 
for the purpose of executing, enforcing, and carrying into effect, all such 
process, writs, orders, judgments, decrees, and acts, which shall be issued, 
made, delivered, given, or done, by the said courts of judicature, and which 
may require to be enforced and executed within the said Indian territo- 
ries, or such other parts oi North America as aforesaid; and in case any 
person or persons whatsoever , residing or being within the said Indian 
territories, or such other parts of America as aforesaid, shall refuse to 
obey or perform any such process, writ, order, judgment, decree, or act, 
of the said courts, or shall resist or oppose the execution thereof, it shall 
and may be lawful for the said justices of the peace or commissioners, 
and they, or any of them, are, and is, hereby required, on the same being 
proved before him, by the oath or affidavit of one credible witness, to 
commit the said person or persons so offending as aforesaid to custody, 
in order to his or their being conveyed to Upper Canada ; and that it 
shall be lawful for any such justice of the peace or commissioner, or any 
person or persons acting under his authority, to convey, or cause to be 
conveyed, such person or persons so offending as aforesaid to Upper Can- 
ada, in pursuance of such process, writ, order, decree, judgment, or act; 
and such person and persons shall be committed to jail by the said court, 
on his, her, or their being so brought into the said province of Upper 
Canada, by which such process, writ, order, decree, judgment, or act, was 
issued, made, delivered, given, or done, until a final judgment or decree 
shall have been pronounced in such suit, and shall have been duly per- 
formed, and all costs paid, in case such person or persons shall be a party 
or parties in such suit, or until the trial of such suit shall have been con- 
cluded, in case such person or persons shall be a witness or witnesses 
therein : Provided always, that, if any person or persons, so apprehended as 
aforesaid, shall enter into a bond recognizance to any such justice of the 
peace or commissioner, with two sufficient sureties, to the satisfaction of 
such justice of the peace or commissioner, or the said courts, conditioned 
to obey and perform such process, writ, order, judgment, decree, or act, as 
aforesaid, then and in such case it shall and may be lawful for the said 
justice of the peace or commissioner, or the said courts, to discharge 
such person or persons out of custody. 

" IX. And be it further enacted, That, in case such person or persons 
shall not perform and fulfil the condition or conditions of such recogni- 
zance, then and in such case it shall and may be lawful for any such 
justice or commissioner, and he is hereby required, to assign such recog- 
nizance to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, in any suit in which such process, 
writ, order, decree, judgment, or act, shall have been issued, made, deliv- 
ered, given, or done, who may maintain an action in the said courts in his 
own name against the said sureties, and recover against such sureties the 
full amount of such loss or damage as such plaintiff shall prove to have 



L] proofs and illustrations. 471 

been sustained by him, by reason of the original cause of action in respect 
of which such process, writ, order, decree, judgment, or act, of the said 
courts were issued, made, delivered, given, or done, as aforesaid, notwith- 
standing any thing contained in any charter granted to the said Governor 
and Company of Adventurers of England trading to Hudson's Bay. 

" X. And be it further enacted. That it shall be lawful for his majesty, 
if he shall deem it convenient so to do, to issue a commission or com- 
missions to any person or persons to be and act as justices of the peace 
within such parts o^ America as aforesaid, as well within any territories 
heretofore granted to the Com})any of Adventurers o{ England trading to 
Hudson's Bay, as within the Indian territories of such other parts of 
America as aforesaid ; and it shall be lawful for the court in the province 
of Upper Canada, in any case in which it shall appear expedient to have 
any evidence taken by commission, or any facts or issue, or any cause or 
suit, ascertained, to issue a commission to any three or more of such jus- 
tices to take such evidence, and return the same, or try such issue, and 
for that purpose to hold courts, and to issue subpoenas or other processes 
to compel attendance of plaintiffs, defendants, jurors, witnesses, and all 
other persons requisite and essential to the execution of the several pur- 
poses for which such commission or commissions had issued, and with 
the like power and authority as are vested in the courts of the said 
province of Upper Canada; and any order, verdict, judgment, or decree, 
that shall be made, found, declared, or published, by or before any court 
or courts held under and by virtue of such commission or commissions, 
shall be considered to be of as full effect, and enforced in like manner, as 
if the same had been made, found, declared, or published, within the juris- 
diction of the court of the said province ; and at the time of issuing such 
commission or commissions shall be declared the place or places where 
such commission is to be opened, and the courts and proceedings there- 
under held ; and it shall be at the same time provided how and by what 
means the expenses of such commission, and the execution thereof, shall 
be raised and provided for. 

, " XI. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for his majesty, 
notwithstanding any thing contained in this act, or in any charter granted 
to the said Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading to 
Hudson's Bay, from time to time, by any commission under the great 
seal, to authorize and empower any such persons so appointed justices of 
the peace as aforesaid, to sit and hold courts of record for the trial of 
criminal offences and misdemeanors, and also of civil causes; and it shall 
be lawful for his majesty to order, direct, and authorize, the appointment 
of proper officers to act in aid of such courts and justices within the juris- 
diction assigned to such courts and justices, in any such commission ; 
any thing in this act, or in any charter of the Governor and Company of 
Merchant Adventurers o{ England trading to Hudson's Bay, to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. 

" XII. Provided always, and be it further enacted. That such courts 
shall be constituted, as to the number of justices to preside therein, and 
as to such places within the said territories of the said company, or any 
Indian territories, or other parts of North America as aforesaid, and the 
times and manner of holding the same, as his^majesty shall from time to 
time order and direct ; but shall not try any offender upon any charge 
or indictment for any felony made the subject of capital punishment, or 



472 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [L 

for any offence, or passing sentence affecting the life of any offender, or 
adjudge or cause any offender to suffer capital punishment or transporta- 
tion, or take cognizance of or try any civil action or suit, in which the 
cause of such suit or action shall exceed in value the amount or sum of 
two hundred pounds; and in every case of any offence subjecting the per- 
son committing the same to capital punishment or transportation, the 
court or any judge of any such court, or any justice or justices of the 
peace, before whom any such offender shall be brought, shall commit such 
offender to safe custody, and cause such offender to be sent in such custody 
for trial in the court of the province of Upper Canada. 

" XIII. And be it further enacted, That all judgments given in any 
civil suit shall be subject to appeal to his majesty in council, in like 
manner as in other cases in his majesty's province of Upper Canada, and 
also in any case in which the right or title to any land shall be in 
question. 

" XIV. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act contained 
shall be taken or construed to affect any right, privilege, authority, or 
jurisdiction, which the Governor and Company of Adventurers trading to 
Hudson's Bay are by law entitled to claim and exercise under their 
charter ; but that all such rights, privileges, authorities, and jurisdictions, 
shall remain in as full force, virtue, and effect, as if this act had never 
been made ; any thing in this act to the contrary notwithstanding." 



Shortly before the passage of this act, the Hudson's Bay Company was 
united with the North-West Company, or rather the latter was merged in 
the former; and on the 21st of December, I82I, the king made a 



(4.) 

" Grant of the exclusive Trade with the Indians of North America to 
the Hudson's Bay Company," 

of which the following are the terms : — 

" And whereas the said Company of Adventurers of England, trading 
into Hudson's Bay, and certain associations of persons trading under the 
name of the North-West Company of Montreal, have respectively extended 
the fur trade over many parts of North America, which had not been 
before explored : And whereas the competition in the said trade has 
been found, for some years past, to be productive of great inconvenience 
and loss, not only lo the said company and associations, but to the said 
trade in general, and also of great injury to the native Indians, and of 
other persons our subjects : And whereas the said Governor and Company 
of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay, and William Mc- 
Gillivray, of Montreal, in the province of Lower Canada, Esquire, Simon 
McGillivray, of Suffolk Lane, in the city of London, merchant, and Edward 
Ellice, of Spring Gardens, in the county of Middlesex, Esquire, have 
represented to us, that they have entered into an agreement on the 26th 
day of March last, for putting an end to the said competition, and carry- 



I.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 473 

ing on the said trade for twenty-one years, commencing with the outfit of 
1821, and ending with the returns of 1841, to be carried on in tlie name 
of the said Governor and Company exclusively : And whereas the said 
Governor and Company, and W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. 
Ellice, have humbly besought us to make a grant, and give our royal 
license to them jointly, of and for the exclusive privilege of trading with 
the Indians in North America, under the restrictions and upon the terms 
and conditions specified in the said recited act : — 

" Now, know yc, that we, being desirous of encouraging the said trade, 
and remedying the evils which have arisen from the competition which 
has heretofore existed therein, do grant and give our royal license, under 
the hand and seal of one of our principal secretaries of state, to the said 
Governor and Company, and W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. El- 
lice, for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians, in all such 
parts of North America, to the northward and westward of the lands and 
territories belonging to the United States of America, as shall not form 
part of any of our provinces in North America, or of any lands or terri- 
tories belonging to the said United States of America, or to any European 
government, state, or power ; and we do by these presents give, grant, 
and secure, to the said Governor and Company, and W. McGillivray, S. 
McGillivray, and E. Ellice, jointly, the sole and exclusive privilege, for 
the full period of twenty-one years from the date of this our grant, of 
trading with the Indians in all such parts of North America as aforesaid, 
(except as thereinafter excepted :) And we do hereby declare that no rent 
shall be required or demanded for or in respect of this our grant and 
license, or any privileges given thereby, for the said period of twenty-one 
years, but that the said Governor and Company, and W. McGillivray, S. 
McGillivray, and E. Ellice, shall, during the period of this our grant and 
license, keep accurate registers of all persons in their employ, in any parts 
of North America, and shall once in each year return to our secretary 
of state accurate duplicates of all such registers, and shall also enter into 
and give security to us, our heirs and successors, in the penal sum of five 
thousand pounds, for insuring, as far as in them may lie, the due execu- 
tion of all the criminal processes, and of any civil process, in any suit, 
where the matter in dispute shall exceed two hundred pounds, by the 
officers and persons legally empowered to execute such processes, within 
all the territories included in this our grant, and for the producing and 
delivering into safe custody, for purposes of trial, any persons in their 
employ or acting under their authority, within the said territories, who 
may be charged with any criminal offence. 

" And we do hereby require that the said Governor and Company, and 
W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. Ellice, shall, as soon as the same 
can be conveniently done, make and submit, for our consideration and 
approval, such rules and regulations for the management and carrying on 
the said fur trade with the Indians, and the conduct of the persons 
employed by them therein, as may appear to us to be effectual, for gradu- 
ally diminishing or ultimately preventing the sale and distribution of 
spirituous liquors to the Indians, and for promoting their moral and 
religious improvement. — And we do hereby declare that nothing in 
this our grant contained shall be deemed or construed to authorize the 
said Governor and Company, or W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and E. 
Ellice, or any person in their employ, to claim or exercise any trade with 
60 



474 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [I. 

the Indians on the north-west coast of America, to the westward of the 
Stony Mountains, to the prejudice or exclusion of any citizen of the 
United States of America, who may be engaged in the said trade : Pro- 
vided always, that no British subjects other than and except the said 
Governor and Company, and the said W. McGillivray, S. McGillivray, and 
E. Eilice, and the persons authorized to carry on exclusive trade by them 
on grant, shall trade with the Indians within such limits, during the 
period of this our grant." 

Under this license, the parties to whom it was granted continued their 
operations until 16-24, when the claims of the North-West Company were 
extinguished by mutual consent ; the Hudson's Bay Company then became 
the sole possessor of the privileges conceded, which were enjoyed by that 
body until the expiration of the grant. Previous to that period, 1838, 
a new grant was made to the company, entitled, 



(5.) 

" Crown Grant to the Hudson's Bay Company of the exclusive Trade 
with the Indians in certain Parts of North America, for a Term of 
twenty-one Years, and upon Surrender of a former Grant" 

which, after recapitulating the terms of the first grant, continues thus : 

" And whereas the said Governor and Company have acquired to 
themselves all the rights and interests of the said W. McGillivray, S. 
McGillivray, and E. Eilice, under the said recited grant, and the said 
Governor and Company have humbly besought us to accept a surrender 
of the said grant, and in consideration thereof to make a grant to them, 
and give to them our royal license and authority of and for the like 
exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in North America, for the 
like period, and upon similar terms and conditions to those specified and 
referred to in the said recited grant : Now, know ye, that, in consideration 
of the surrender made to us of the said recited grant, and being desirous 
of encouraging the said trade, and of preventing as much as possible a 
recurrence of the evils mentioned or referred to in the said recited grant, 
as also in consideration of the yearly rent hereinafter reserved to us, we 
do hereby grant and give our license, under the hand and seal of one of 
our principal secretaries of state, to the said Governor and Company, and 
their successors, for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in 
all such parts of North America, to the northward and to the westward 
of the lands and territories belonging to the United States of America, as 
shall not form part of any of our provinces in North America, or of any 
lands or territories belonging to the said United States of America, or to 
any European government, state, or power, but subject, nevertheless, as 
hereinafter mentioned : And we do, by these presents, give, grant, and 
secure, to the said Governor and Company, and their successors, the sole 
and exclusive privilege, for the full period of twenty-one years from the 
date of this our grant, of trading with the Indians in all such parts of 
North America as aforesaid, (except as hereinafter mentioned : ) And we 



1.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTUATIONS. 475 

do hereby declare that no rent shall be required or demanded for or in 
respect of this our grant and license, or any privileges given thereby for 
the first four years of the said term of twenty-one years ; and we do hereby 
reserve to ourselves, our heirs and successors, for the remainder of the 
said term of twenty-one years, the yearly rent or sum of five shillings, to be 
paid by the said Governor and Company, or their successors, on the 1st 
day of June, in every year, into our exchequer, on the account of us, our 
heirs and successors : And we do hereby declare that the said Governor 
and Company, and their successors, shall, during the period of this our 
grant and license, keep accurate registers of all persons in their employ 
in any parts of North America, and shall, once in each year, return to 
our secretary of state accurate duplicates of such registers; and shall also 
enter into and give security to us, our heirs and successors, in the penal 
sum of five thousand pounds, for insuring, as far as in them may lie, or as 
they can by their authority over the servants and persons in their employ, 
the due execution of all criminal and civil processes by the officers and 
persons legally empowered to execute such processes within all the terri- 
tories included in this our grant, and for the producing or delivering into 
custody, for the purposes of trial, all persons in their employ or acting 
under their authority, within the said territories, who shall be charged with 
any criminal offence : And we do also hereby require that the said Gov- 
ernor and Company, and their successors, shall, as soon as the same can 
conveniently be done, make and submit for our consideration and approval, 
such rules and regulations for the management and carrying on the said 
fur trade with the Indians, and the conduct of the persons employed by 
them therein, as may appear to us to be effectual for diminishing or pre- 
venting the sale or distribution of spirituous liquors to the Indians, and 
for promoting their moral and religious improvement : But we do hereby 
declare that nothing in this our grant contained shall be deemed or con- 
strued to authorize the said Governor and Company, or their successors, 
or any persons in their employ, to claim or exercise any trade with the 
Indians on the north-west coast of America, to the westward of the 
Stony Mountains, to the prejudice or exclusion of any of the subjects of 
any foreign states, who, under or by force of any convention for the time 
being, between us and such foreign states respectively, may be entitled to, 
and shall be engaged in, the said trade: Provided, nevertheless, and we 
do hereby declare our pleasure to be, that nothing herein contained shall 
extend or be construed to prevent the establishment by us, our heirs, or 
successors, within the territories aforesaid, or any of them, of any colony 
or colonies, province or provinces, or for annexing any part of the afore- 
said territories to any existing colony or colonies to us in right of our 
imperial crown belonging, or for constituting any such form of civil 
government, as to us may seem meet, within any such colony or col- 
onies, or provinces : 

" And we do hereby reserve to us, our heirs and successors, full power 
and authority to revoke these presents, or any part thereof, in so far as 
the same may embrace or extend to any of the territories aforesaid, which 
may hereafter be comprised within any colony or colonies, province or 
provinces, as aforesaid : 

" It being, nevertheless, hereby declared that no British subjects, other 
than and except the said Governor and Company, and their successors, 
and the persons authorized to carry on exclusive trade by them, shall 



476 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [K. 

trade with the Indians during the period of this our grant, within the 
limits aforesaid, or within that part thereof- which shall not be com- 
prised within any such colony or province as aforesaid." 



K. 



Tkeaties and Conventions relative to the North-West 
Territories of North America. 

(!•) 

Convention between Great Britain and Spain, [commonly called the 
NooTKA Treaty,) signed at the Escurial, October 28<A, 1790. 

Article 1. The buildings and tracts of land situated on the north- 
west coast of the continent of North America, or on the islands adjacent 
to that continent, of which the subjects of his Britannic majesty were dis- 
possessed about the month of April, 1789, by a Spanish officer, shall be 
restored to the said British subjects. 

Art. 2. A just reparation shall be made, according to the nature of 
the case, for all acts of violence or hostility which may have been com- 
mitted subsequent to the month of April, 1789, by the subjects of either 
of the contracting parties against the subjects of the other; and, in case 
any of the said respective subjects shall, since the same period, have been 
forcibly dispossessed of their lands, buildings, vessels, merchandise, and 
other property, whatever, on the said continent, or on the seas and islands 
adjacent, they shall be reestablished in the possession thereof, or a just com- 
pensation shall be made to them for the losses which they have sustained. 

Art. 3. In order to strengthen the bonds of friendship, and to pre- 
serve in future a perfect harmony and good understanding, between the 
two contracting parties, it is agreed that their respective subjects shall not 
be disturbed or molested, either in navigating, or carrying on their fish- 
eries, in the Pacific Ocean or in the South Seas, or in landing on the 
coasts of those seas in places not already occupied, for the purpose of 
carrying on their commerce with the natives of the country, or of making 
settlements there ; the whole subject, nevertheless, to the restrictions 
specified in the three following articles. 

Art. 4. His Britannic majesty engages to take the most effectual 
measures to prevent the navigation and the fishery of his subjects in the 
Pacific Ocean or in the South Seas from being made a pretext for illicit 
trade with the Spanish settlements ; and, with this view, it is moreover 
expressly stipulated that British subjects shall not navigate, or carry on 
their fishery, in the said seas, within the space of ten sea leagues from 
any part of the coasts already occupied by Spain. 

Art. 5. As well in the places which are to be restored to the British 
subjects, by virtue of the firsts article, as in all other parts of the north- 



K.] PROOIS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 477 

western coasts of North America, or of the islands adjacent, situate to the 
north of the parts of the said coast already occupied by Spain, wherever 
the subjects of either of the two powers shall have made settlements since 
the month of April, 1789, or shall hereafter make any, the subjects of the 
other shall have free access, and shall carry on their trade without any 
disturbance or molestation. 

Art. 6. With respect to the eastern and western coasts of South 
America, and to the islands adjacent, no settlement shall be formed here- 
after by the respective subjects in such part of those coasts as are situated 
to the south of those parts of the same coasts, and of the islands adjacent, 
■ which are already occupied by Spain : provided, that the said respective 
subjects shall retain the liberty of landing on the coasts and islands so 
situated for the purpose of their fishery, and of erecting thereon huts and 
other temporary buildings serving only for those purposes. 

Art. 7. In all cases of complaint or infraction of the articles of the 
present convention, the officers of either party, without permitting them- 
selves to commit any violence or act of force, shall be bound to make 
an exact report of the affair and of its circumstances to their respective 
courts, who will terminate such differences in an amicable manner. 



(2.) 

Convention between the United States of America and Great Britain, 
signed at London, October 20<A, 1818. 

Article 2. It is agreed that a line drawn from the most north-western 
point of the Lake of the Woods, along the 49th parallel of north latitude, 
or, if the said point shall not be in the 49th parallel of north latitude, then 
that a line drawn from the said point due north or south, as the case may 
be, until the said line shall intersect the said parallel of north latitude, 
and from the point of such intersection due west along and with the said 
parallel, shall be the line of demarkation between the territories of the 
United States and those of his Britannic majesty ; and that the said line 
shall form the northern boundary of the said territories of the United 
States, and the southern boundary of the territories of his Britannic 
majesty, from the Lake of the Woods to the Stony Mountains. 

Art. 3. It is agreed that any country that may be claimed by either 
party on the north-west coast of America, westward of the Stony Moun- 
tains, shall, together with its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the naviga- 
tion of all rivers within the same, be free and open for the term of 
ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention, to the 
vessels, citizens, and subjects, of the two powers ; it being well understood 
that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim 
which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of 
the said country, nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other 
power or state to any part of the said country ; the only object of the 
high contractng parties, in that respect, being to prevent disputes and 
differences among themselves. 



478 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [BL 



(3.) 

Treaty of Amity, Settlement, and Limits, between the United States and 
Spain, {^commonly called the Florida Treaty,) signed at Washing- 
ton, February 22f/, 1819. 

Article 3. The boundary line between the two countries west of the 
Mississippi shall begin on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the River 
Sabine, in the sea, continuing north, along the western bank of that river, . 
to the 32d degree of latitude; thence, by aline due north, to the degree 
of latitude where it strikes the Rio Roxo of Natchitoches, or Red River ; 
then, following the course of the Rio Roxo westward, to the degree of 
longitude 100 west from London and 23 from Washington ; then crossing 
the said Red River, and running thence, by a line due north, to the 
River Arkansas ; thence following the course of the southern bank of the 
Arkansas, to its source in latitude 42 north; and thence, by that parallel 
of latitude, to the South Sea; the whole being as laid down in Melish's 
map of the United States, published at Philadelphia, improved to the 1st 
of January, 1818. But, if the source of the Arkansas River shall be found 
to fall north or south of latitude 42, then the line shall run from the said 
source due south or north, as the case may be, till it meets the said par- 
allel of latitude 42, and thence, along the said parallel, to the South Sea; 
all the islands in the Sabine, and the said Red and Arkansas Rivers, 
throughout the course thus described, to belong to the United States ; but 
the use of the waters and the navigation of the Sabine to the sea, and of 
the said Rivers Roxo and Arkansas, throughout the extent of the said 
boundary, on their respective banks, shaJl be common to the respective 
inhabitants of both nations. 

The two high contracting parties agree to cede and renounce all their 
rights, claims, and pretensions, to the territories described by the said 
line ; that is to say, the United States hereby cede to his Catholic majesty, 
and renounce forever, all their rights, claims, and pretensions, to the terri- 
tories lying west and south of the above-described line; and, in like man 
ner, his Catholic majesty cedes to the said United States all his rights, 
claims, and pretensions, to any territories east and north of the said line ; 
and for himself, his heirs, and successors, renounces all claim to the said 
territories forever. 

(4.) 

Convention between the United States and Russia, signed at St. Peters- 
burg, on the yV of April, 1824. 

Article 1. It is agreed that, in any part of the great ocean, commonly 
called the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea, the respective citizens or subjects 
of the high contracting powers shall be neither disturbed nor restrained, 
either in navigation or in fishing, or in the power of resorting to the 
coasts, upon points which may not already have been occupied, for the 
purpose of trading with the natives; saving always the restrictions and 
conditions determined by the following articles. 



K.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 479 

Art. 2. With the view of preventing the rights of navigation and of 
fishing, exercised upon the great ocean by the citizens and subjects of 
the high contracting powers, from becoming the pretext for an illicit 
trade, it is agreed that the citizens of the United States shall not resort to 
any point where there is a Russian establishment, without the permission 
of the governor or commander ; and that, reciprocally, the subjects of 
Russia shall not resort, without permission, to any establishment of the 
United States upon the north-west coast. 

Art. 3. It is, moreover, agreed that hereafter there shall not be 
formed by the citizens of the United States, or under the authority of the 
said States, any establishment upon the north-west coast of America, nor 
in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of 54 degrees and 40 minutes 
of north latitude ; and that, in the same manner, there shall be none 
formed by Russian subjects, or under the authority of Russia, south of 
the same parallel. 

Art. 4. It is, nevertheless, understood that, during a term of ten 
years, counting from the signature of the present convention, the ships of 
both powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects, respectively, 
may reciprocally frequent, without any hinderance whatever, the interior 
seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks, upon the coast mentioned in the pre- 
ceding article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives 
of the country. 

Art. 5. AH spirituous liquors, fire-arms, other arms, powder, and 
munitions of war of every kind, are always excepted from this same com- 
merce permitted by the preceding article ; and the two powers engage, 
reciprocally, neither to sell, nor suffer them to be sold, to the natives, by 
their respective citizens and subjects, nor by any person who may be 
under their authority. It is likewise stipulated, that this restriction shall 
never afford a pretext, nor be advanced, in any case, to authorize either 
search or detention of the vessels, seizure of the merchandise, or, in fine, 
any measures of constraint whatever, towards the merchants or the crews 
who may carry on this commerce ; the high contracting powers recipro- 
cally reserving to themselves to determine upon the penalties to be 
incurred, and to inflict the punishments in case of the contravention of 
this article by their respective citizens or subjects. 



(6.) 

Convention between Great Britain and Russia, signed at St. Peters- 
burg, February 4^|, 1825. 

Article 1. It is agreed that the respective subjects of the high con- 
tracting parties shall not be troubled or molested in any part of the ocean 
commonly called the Pacific Ocean, either in navigating the same, in 
fishing therein, or in landing at such parts of the coast as shall not have 
been already occupied, in order to trade with the natives, under the 
restrictions and conditions specified in the following articles. 

Art. 2. In order to prevent the right of navigating and fishing, exer- 
cised upon the ocean by the subjects of the high contracting parties, from 
becoming the pretext for an illicit commerce, it is agreed that the subjects 



480 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [K 

of his Britannic majesty shall not land at any place where there may be a 
Russian establishment, without the permission of the governor or com- 
mandant; and, on the other hand, that Russian subjects shall not land, 
without permission, at any British establishment on the north-west coast. 
Art. 3. The line of demarkation between the possessions of the high 
contracting parties, upon the coast of the continent, and the islands of 
America to the north-west, shall be drawn in the manner following : Com- 
mencing from the southernmost point of the island called Prince of Wales's 
Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes north 
latitude, and between the 131st and the 133d degree of west longitude, 
(meridian of Greenwich,) the said line shall ascend to the north along 
the channel called Portland Channel, as far as the point of the continent 
t\ where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude. From this last-men- 
.^ tioned point, the line of demarkation shall follow the summit of the moun- 
"^.tains situated parallel to the coast, as far as the point of intersection of the 
_g 141st degree of west longitude, (of the same meridian.) And, finally, 

J from the said point of intersection, the said meridian line of the 141st 
degree, in its prolongation as far as the Frozen Ocean, shall form the 
»5 limit between the Russian and British possessions on the continent of 
X America to the north-west. 

"s Art. 4. With reference to the line of demarkation laid down in the 
ij^ preceding article, it is understood — 
jj- 1st. That the island called Prince of Wales's Island shall belong 
* wholly to Russia. 
/^ 2d. That whenever the summit of the mountains which extend in a 
Vj; direction parallel to the coast, from the 56th degree of north latitude to 
' the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude, shall prove 
^ to be at the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, the 
3 limit between the British possessions and the line of coast which is to 
\ belong to Russia, as above mentioned, shall be formed by a line parallel to 
H the windings of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of 
S ten marine leagues therefrom. 

~J Art. 5. It is, moreover, agreed that no establishment shall be formed 
,5 by either of the two parties within the limits assigned by the two preced- 
. ^ ing articles to the possessions of the other ; consequently, British subjects 
sj shall not form any establishment either upon the coast, or upon the border 
^ of the continent comprised within the limits of the Russian possessions, as 
designated in the two preceding articles ; and, in like manner, no estab- 
lishment shall be formed by Russian subjects beyond the said limits. 

Art. 6. It is understood that the subjects of his Britannic majesty, 
from whatever quarter they may arrive, whether from the ocean or from 
the interior of the continent, shall forever enjoy the right of navigating 
freely, and without any hinderance whatever, all the rivers and streams 
which, in their course towards the Pacific Ocean, may cross the line of 
demarkation upon the line of coast described in article 3 of the present 
convention. 

Art. 7. It is also understood that, for the space of ten years from the 
signature of the present convention, the vessels of the two powers, or 
those belonging to their respective subjects, shall mutually be at liberty 
to frequent, without any hinderance whatever, all the inland seas, the 
gulfs, havens, and creeks, on the coast, mentioned in article 3, for the 
purposes of fishing and of trading with the natives. 



K.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTKATIONS. 481 

Art. 8. The port of Sitka, or Novo Archangelsk, shall be open to the 
commerce and vessels of British subjects for the space of ten years from 
the date of the exchange of the ratifications of the present convention. In 
the event of an extension of this term of ten years being granted to any 
other power, the like extension shall be granted also to Great Britain. 

Art. 9. The above-mentioned liberty of commerce shall not apply to 
the trade in spirituous liquors, in fire-arms, or other arms, gunpowder, or 
other warlike stores; the high contracting parties reciprocally engaging 
not to permit the above-mentioned articles to be sold or delivered, in any 
manner whatever, to the natives of the country. 

Art. 10. Every British or Russian vessel navigating the Pacific 
Ocean, which may be compelled by storms or by accident to take shelter 
in the ports of the respective parties, shall be at liberty to refit therein, 
to provide itself with all necessary stores, and to put to sea again, without 
paying any other than port and lighthouse dues, which shall be the same 
as those paid by national vessels. In case, however, the master of such 
vessel should be under the necessity of disposing of a part of his merchan- 
dise in order to defray his expenses, he shall conform himself to the regu- 
lations and tariffs of the place where he may have landed. 

Art. 11. In every case of complaint on account of an infraction of 
the articles of the present convention, the civil and military authorities 
of the high contracting parties, without previously acting, or taking any 
forcible measure, shall make an exact and circumstantial report of the 
matter to their respective courts, who engage to settle the same in a 
friendly manner, and according to the principles of justice. 



(6.) 

Convention between the United Slates and Great Britain, signed at 
London, August 6th, 1827. 

Article 1. All the provisions of the third article of the convention 
concluded between the United States of America and his majesty the king 
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on the 20th of 
October, 1818, shall be, and they are hereby, further indefinitely extended 
and continued in force, in the same manner as if all the provisions of the 
said article were herein specifically recited. 

Art. 2. It shall be competent, however, to either of the contracting 
parties, in case either should think fit, at any time after the 20th of Octo- 
ber, 1828, on giving due notice of twelve months to the other contracting 
party, to annul and abrogate this convention ; and it shall, in such case, 
be accordingly entirely annulled and abrogated, after the expiration of the 
said term of notice. 

Art. 3. Nothing contained in this convention, or in the third article 
of the convention of the 20th October, 1818, hereby continued in force, 
shall be construed to impair, or in any manner affect, the claims which 
either of the contracting parties may have to any part of the country west- 
ward of the Stony or Rocky Mountains. 
61 



GENERAL INDEX. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Adams, John Q., United States minister 
at St. Petersburg, correspondence with 
the Russian government respecting 
American traders on the north-west 
coast, 275. Secretary of state of tlie 
United States; negotiations with Spain 
on tlie southern and western limits of 
the United States, 316. Correspond- 
ence with the Russian minister at 
Washington on the ukase of 1821, 
332. Instructions to Mr. Rush, United 
States minister at London, on claims 
of the United States, in 1823, 340. 
President of the United States ; message 
recommending the adoption of measures 
respecting Oregon, 344. 

Aguilar, Martin de, voyage and supposed 
discovery of a great river on the north- 
west coast, 92. 

Alarcon, Hernando, voyage up the Cali- 
fornian Gulf and the Colorado River, 60. 

Aleutian Islands described, 41. Discov- 
ered, 135. 

Aliaska described, 38. Discovered, 132. 

America. This name first given to Brazil 
in 1503. Never used by Spanish govern- 
ment and historians until recently, 43. 

Anian, Strait of, said to have been dis- 
covered by Cortereal, probably the same 
now called Hudson's Strait, 47. Voy- 
ages in search of it, 78. Sec Urdaiieta, 
Ladrillero, Maldonado, Fontc, Vizcaino. 

Archer, William S., his speech in the 
Senate of the United States on the bill 
for the occupation of Oreo-on, 385, 386, 
388. 

Arteaga, Ignacio, voyage, 125. 

Ashlej', William 11., conducts trading 
expeditions from St. Louis to the 
Rocky Mountain regions, 357. 

Astoria established, 296. Described, 299 
—313. Ceded to North- West Compa- 
ny, 303. Taken by British, 304. Re- 
stored to the United States, 309. Burnt, 
313. See Pacific Fur Company. 

Atlantis, Island, placed by Bacon on the 
north-west coast, 97. 



B. 

Baranof, Alexander, governor of Russian 
America, his character, 271. Founds 
Sitka, 270. His mode of conducting 
negotiations, 302. Seizes part of Cali- 
fornia, 327. Attempts to seize one of 
the Sandwich Islands, 328. 
Becerra, Diego, voyage from Mexico by 

order of Cortes, 54. 
Benton, Thomas H., his speech in the 
Senate of the United States on the bill 
for the occupation of Oregon, 384. 
Benyowsky, Augustus, a Polish exile in 
Kamtchatka, performs the first voyage 
from that country to Canton, 138. 
Bering, Alexander, first voyaoe from 
Kamtchatka to the Arctic ^ea, 129. 
Second voyage, 129. Third and last 
voyage, 130. Reaches the American 
continent, 131. Shipwreck and death, 
133. 
Bering's Strait discovered, 129. Described, 

4. 
Berkeley, Captain, rediscovers the Strait 
of Fuca ; murder of part of his crew oif 
Destruction Island, 171. 
Berrien, John M., his speech in the Senate 
of the United States on the bill for the 
occupation of Oregon, 385. 
Billings, Joseph, engaged by the empress 
of Russia to explore the North Pacific, 
162. His voyage produces no valuable 
results, 221 . 
Bodega y Quadra, Juan Francisco de, first 
voyage, under Heceta, from Mexico, 
along the north-west coast, 117. Impor- 
tance of his discoveries, 123. Second 
voyage, under Arteaga, 125. (See Mau- 
relle.) Commissioner to treat with Van- 
couver at Nootka, 231. (See Nootka 
Convention.) Letter to Captains Gray 
and Ingraham, 242, 443. Death, 255. 
Brobdignag, placed by Swift on the north- 

west coast, near Columbia River, 97. 
Broughton, William, sent by Vancouver 
to survey tlie lower part of the Co- 
lumbia liiver, 247. Unfairness to the 
Americans, 248. Sent to England, 249. 



486 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Commands an exploring expedition in 
the North Pacific, 256. Finds Nootka 
Sound deserted, 257. 
Bulfinch's Harbor discovered by Captain 
Gray, of Boston, 235. Examined by 
Vancouver's lieutenant, Whidbey, 246. 
Described, 22. 



c. 



Caamano, Jacmto, voyage in the North- 
West Archipelago, 241. 

Cabeza-Vaca, Alvaro Nuiiez, journey from 
Florida to the Californian Gulf, 57. 

Cabot, John, and Sebastian, voyages, 47. 

Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez, exploring voy- 
age from Mexico, and death, 64. 

Calhoun, John C, his speech in the Sen- 
ate of the United States on the bill for 
the occupation of Oregon, 383. 

California, origin of the name unknown, 
55. 

California, Peninsula of, described, 13. 
Discj/eredj fruitless attempts of the 
Spaniards to settle, 90, 98. Jesuits 
engage to civilize the inhabitants, 99. 
Their partial success, 100. Their His- 
tory of California, 101. Expulsion of 
the Jesuits, 106. 

California, Continental, or New, described, 
15. Discovered, 58. Settled by the 
Spaniards, 109. Clahned by Mexico, 
317. Attempted msurrection in, 367. 
Recent events in, 368. 

California, Gulf of, described, 12. Dis- 
covered, 54. Examined by Ulloa, 58; 
and by Alarcon, 60. 

Carver, Jonathan, travels in the central 
regions of North America, 141. Pre- 
tended discovery of a river called Ore- 
gon^ flowing into the Pacific, 142. His 
accounts chiefly derived from old French 
travellers, 144. 

Cavendish, Thomas, voyage around the 
world ; takes and burns a Spanish ship 
near the coast of California, 77. 

Cermerion, Sebastian, wrecked on the 
coast of California, 68. 

Choate, Rufus, his speech in the Senate of 
the United States on the bill for the oc- 
cupation of Oregon, 385. 

Cibola, a country or city north-west of 
Mexico, discovered by Friar Marcos de 
Niza, 59. Supposed position, 62. Ex- 
pedition of Vazquez de Coronado to 
conquer it, 61. 

Clarke. .See Lewis and Clarke. 

Clarke River discovered, 286. Described, 
23. 

Colnett, James, engaged by Meares to 
command the Argonaut, 189. Made 
prisoner by the Spaniards at Nootka, 
and sent to Mexico, 195. Liberated by 
order of the viceroy of Mexico, 200. 

Columbia. American trnding ship, fitted 
out at Boston, 179. Sails under Ken- 



drick to the North Pacific, 180. Puta 
into Juan Fernandez in distress, 181. 
Reaches Nootka Sound, 181. Sails for 
Canton and the United States, under 
Captain Gray, 200. Second voyage 
under Gray, 229. Winters at Clyo- 
quot, 230. Discovery of the Columbia 
River, 235. See Gray and Vancouver. 

Columbia River, (called, also, Oregon,) 
described, 21. Mouth seen by the Span- 
ish commander Heceta, 120. Meares 
seeks for it in vain, and denies its ex- 
istence, 177. Mouth seen by the Amer- 
ican Captain Gray, 181. Gray first en- 
ters the river, 236. Lower part explored 
by the British Lieutenant Broughton, 
247, who unfairly pretends to have dis- 
covered it, 248. Head-waters discov- 
ered by Lewis and Clarke, who trace 
the river thence to the sea, 285. British 
plenipotentiaries claim the discovery for 
Meares, 178. 

Convention of 1790, between Great Brit- 
ain and Spain, see Nootka Convention. 
Of 1818, between Great Britain and the 
United States, concluded, 315, 477. Re- 
newed in 1827 for an indefinite period, 
354. Reflections on, 389. Of 1824, 
between the United States and Russia, 
concluded, 341, 478. Virtually abro- 
gated by Russia, 342. 

Cook, James, undertakes a voyage of 
discovery in the North Pacific; his in- 
structions, 147. Discovers the Sand- 
wich Islands, 150. Reaches Nootka 
Sound, 151. Passes through Bering's 
Straits, 1.56. Killed at the Sandwich 
Islands, 157. Importance of his dis- 
coveries, 158. Knew no particulars 
of the recent Spanish voyages, 149 ; 
though he knew that such voyages 
had been made, 152. 

Coronado, Francisco Vazquez, expedition 
from Mexico, to conquer the rich coun- 
tries sup^josed to lie farther north-west, 
61. 

Cortereal, Caspar, discovers Labrador; 
Strait of Anian said to have been 
found by him, leading from the At- 
lantic north-west to the Pacific, 47. 

Cortes, Hernando, conquers Mexico, and 
proposes to explore the coasts of that 
country, 50. Expeditions made by his 
order on the Pacific, 53. Leads an 
expedition into California, 55. Super- 
seded in the government of Mexico, to 
which country he returns, 56. Claims 
the right to make conquests in America ; 
returns to Spain, and dies, 60. 

D 

Dixon, George, voyage in the North Pa- 
cific, 169. Dispute with Meares, 218. 

Douglas, William, master of the Iphige- 
nia ; voyage under Meares to the North 



GENERAL INDEX. 



487 



Pacific, 172. Taken prisoner by tlie 
Spaniards at Nootka, 191. Released, 

Drake, Francis, voyage around the world, 
72. Arrives in the North Pacific, and 
lands on the American coast, 73. Re- 
ceives from the natives the crown of 
the country, which he calls New Albi- 
on, and returns to England, 74. Re- 
view of accounts of his voyage in the 
North Pacific, 75. Part of the coast 
probably seen by him, 76. 

Duffin, Robert, mate of Meares's vessel, 
enters the Strait of Fuca, 176. Testi- 
mony respecting events at Nootka, 244. 



Falkland Islands, dispute between Great 
Britain and Spain respecting them, 
111. Lord Palmerston's letter to the 
minister of Buenos Ayres on the sub- 
ject of their occupation by Great Brit- 
ain, 111—313, 374. 

Fidalgo, Salvador, voyage of, 220. 

Fleurieu, Clairet de, his Introduction to 
the Journal of Marchand's voyage, 223. 

• Admits the discovery of the Washing- 
ton or North Marquesas Islands by 
Ingraham, 228. 

Florida, the name applied originally by 
the Spaniards to the whole eastern side 
of America, north of the Mexican 
Gulf, 55. Expeditions through it un- 
der Narvaez, 57, and Soto, 65. Ceded 
to the United States, 316. 

Fonte, Admiral, supposed voyage, in the 
North Pacific, by a person so named, 
84. 

Forsyth, John, secretary of state of the 
United States, instructions respecting 
the meaning of the convention witli 
Russia, 362. Endeavors to procure in- 
formation respecting the north-west 
coast, 376. 

Fox, Charles J., his speech in Parliament 
on the Nootka convention, 212. 

Fuca, Juan de, voyage in the North 
Pacific, and supposed discovery of a 
new passage leading to the Atlantic, 
87, 407. 

Fuca, Strait of, described, 22. Discovered 
by Juan de Fuca, 87. Search for it by 
Hoceta, 119. By Cook, 150. Found by 
Berkeley, 171. Rediscovery claimed by 
Meares, 175. Entered by Gray, T.Mt, 
234. Kendrick passes through "it, 200, 
217. Surveyed by Vancouver, and Ga- 
liano, and Valdes, 238 

Furs and fur trade, general account, 411. 
See Russian American Company, Hud- 
son's Bay Company, and North- West 
Company. 



G. 



Gallatin, Albert, minister plenipotentiary 
of the United States at London ; ne- 
gotiations at London, 314, 344. Coun- 
ter statement respecting the claims of 
the United States, presented by him to 
British commissioners, 347, 455. 

Gali, Francisco, his voyage, 68. 

Galiano and Valdes, their voyage through 
the Strait of Fuca, 240. Journal pub- 
lished by the Spanish government; 
Introduction to that Journal reviewed, 
241. 

Gray, Robert, first voyage to the North 
Pacific, in command of the trading sloop 
Washington, from Boston, 180. Sees 
an opening supposed to be the mouth of 
the Columbia River, 181. First exam- 
ines the east coast of Washington's or 
Queen Charlotte's Island, 199. Enters 
the Strait of Fuca, 200. Returns to 
Boston in the ship Columbia, 200. 
Second voyage to the North Pacific, in 
the Columbia, 226, 229. Meets Van- 
couver near the entrance of the Strait of 
Fuca, and makes known his discovery 
of the mouth of a great river, 233. Dis- 
covers Bulfinch's Harbor, 235. Enters 
the great river, wliicli he names the 
Columbia, 236. Makes known his dis- 
covery to the Spanish commandant at 
Nootka, 237. Letter of Gray and In- 
graham to the Spanish commandant, 
respecting the occurrences at Nootka 
in 1789, 242, 413. Returns to the Unit- 
ed States, 237. 



H. 



Harmon, D. W., important evidence 
afforded by him respecting the first 
trading posts established by the British 
west of the Rocky Mountains, 291. 

Hawaii. See Owyhee. 

Hearne, Samuel, discoveries in the territo- 
ry west of Hudson's Bay, 1 45. Reaches 
the Arctic Sea, at the mouth of Cop- 
permine River, 146. 

Heceta, Bruno, voyage along the north- 
west coast of America, in 1775, 117. 
Discovers a river, called by him Rio de 
Sail Roque, now called the Coluvibia, 
120. 

Henderson, John, speech in the Senate of 
the United States on the bill for the 
occupation of Oregon, 382. 

Hovvel's account of the negotiation at 
Nootka between Vancouver and Qua- 
dra, 245. 

Hudson, Henry, discovers Hudson's Bay, 
97. 

Hudson's Bay Company establislied by 
charter, 97. Efforts to discover a 



Sv 



488 



GENERAL INDEX. 



north-west passage, 141. Disputes with 
the N'orth-West Company, 260, 324. 
Union of these two companies, 326. 
Receives a grant of exclusive trade in 
the Indian territories, 326. General 
view of its system and establishments, 
397. Papers relating to it, 465. 

Hudson's Strait, probably the same called 
by the Portuguese the Strait of Jinmn^AK . 

Hunt, Wilson P., chief agent of the Pa- 
cific Fur Company, 2!)5. His negotia- 
tions with Governor Baranof at Sitka, 
302. 

Huntingdon, Jabez W., speech in the 
Senate of the United States on the bill 
for the occupation of Oregon, 382. 



Ingraham, Joseph, mate of the ship Co- 
lumbia, in her first voyage from Boston 
to the north-west coast, 180. Returns 
to the Pacific as master of the brig 
Hope, and discovers the Washing- 
ton or North Marquesas Islands, 226. 
At the Sandwich Islands, 227. At 
Queen Charlotte's Island, 227. At Ma- 
cao, where he meets Marchand, and 
communicates his discovery of the 
Washington Islands, the priority of 
which is admitted by Marchand and 
Fleurieu, 228. At Nootka, where he 
writes a letter, signed by himself and 
Gray, respecting the proceedings at 
that place in 1789, 242. Copy of that 
letter, 414. Unfair synopsis of it by 
Vancouver, 244. His journal, 231. His 
death, 237. 



J. 



Jesuits undertake the reduction of Cali- 
fornia, 99. Their system and establish- 
ments, 100. Their History of Califor- 
nia, 101. Expelled from the Spanish 
dominions, 106. Results q^ their labors 
in California, 107. 

Jesup, Thomas S., quartermaster-general 
of the United States ; report on the 
best means of occupying Oregon, 336. 
Effect of that report on the negotia- 
tions in Europe, 337. 

Jewitt, J. R., his captivity among the In- 
dians at Nootka, 268. 



K. 



Kamtchatka described, 39. Conquered 
by the Cossacks, 128! Its position on 
the Pacific ascert;iined, 129. 

Kendrick, John, commands the first trad- 
ing expedition from the United States 
to the North Pacific, 179. Arrives at 



Nootka, ISl. Sails in the sloop Wash 
ington through the Strait of Fuca, 
200, 217. The first who engaged in 
the transportation of sandal-wood from 
the Sandwich Islands to Canton, 228. 
His purchases of lands from the Indians 
at Nootka ; accidentally killed, 229. 

Kodiak Island, 37. Settlement on it by 
the Russians, 161. 

Krenitzin and Levaschef, voyage of, 137. 

Krusenstern, A. J. von, commands a 
Russian exploring expedition to the 
Pacific, 272. His great merit as a navi- 
gator ; his journal of the expedition ; 
efficient in the reform of abuses in 
Russian America, 274 



Ladrillero, Juan, an old Spanish pilot, 
who pretended to have made a northern 
voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
79. 

Ledyard, John, corporal of marines in 
Cook's expedition, 149. Escapes from 
a British ship, off the coast of Connecti- 
cut, 162. Endeavors to obtain means 
to engage in the fur trade ; attempts 
to go by land from Paris to Kamt- 
chatka ; arrested at Irkutsk, and 
forced to return ; attempts to discover 
the source of the Nile, and dies at 
Cairo, 163. 

Lewis, Meriwether, and John Clarke, 
commissioned by President Jefferson to 
explore the Missouri and Columbia 
countries, 284. Voyage up the Mis- 
souri to its sources ; passage through 
the Rocky Mountains, 28-5. Descend 
the Columbia to the Pacific; winter 
at the mouth of the Columbia, 286. 
Return to the United States, 287. Gen- 
eral results of their expedition ; their 
Journal written by Lewis ; melancholy 
death of Lewis, 288. 

Lewis, or Snake, or Sahaptin River, 
principal southern branch of the Co- 
lumbia, discovered by Lewis and Clarke, 
287. Described, 24. 

Linn, Lewis F., his bill and speeches in 
the Senate of the United Stales on the 
occupation of Oregon, 379, 387. 

Louisiana, settled by the French ; grant- 
ed by Lcuis XIV. to Crozat, 227 ; and 
afterwards to Law, 228. Ceded by 
France to Spain ; retroceded by Spain 
to France, and sold by France to tiie 
United States, 279. Its extent at dif 
ferent times, 280. Comprehended no 
territory west of the Rocky Mountains, 
283. Nortli(>rn boundary not deter- 
mined by coiinnissarles agreeably to the 
treaty of Utrecht, as generally sup- 
posed, 281, 436. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



489 



M. 



MacDougal, Duncan, partner in the Pa- 
cific Company, 294. Sells the estab- 
lishments to the North-West Company, 
303. See Astoria. 

MacDuffie, George, speech in the Senate 
of the United States on the bill for the 
occupation of Oregon, 38'2. 

MacKenzie, Alexander, explores the north- 
western parts of America J reaches tlie 
Arctic Sea, 263. Reaches the Pacific, 
264. MacKenzie River discovered by 
MacKenzie, 263. 

MacRoberts, Samuel, speech in the Senate 
of the United States on the bill for the 
occupation of Oregon, 382. 

Magellan, Fernando, sails from the Atlan- 
tic through Magellan's Strait into the 
Pacific, and across the latter ocean to 
India, 48. 

Malaspina, Alexandro, explores the coasts 
near Mount St. Elias, in search of a 
passage supposed to communicate with 
the Atlantic ; arrested and imprisoned 
on his return to Spain; his name not 
mentioned in the account of his voyage 
otficially published at Madrid, 222. 

Maldonado, Lorenzo Ferrer de, account 
of his pretended voyage from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific, 79. 

Maquinna, chief of Nootka, 167. Grants 
land to Meares for his temporary use, 
174. Denies that the British had bought 
lands or erected buildings at Nootka, 
242. Takes the ship Boston, of Boston, 
and murders nearly all her crew, 268. 

Marchand, Etienne, commands the ship 
Solide, from Marseilles, in her voyage 
around the world, 223. Sees the islands 
which had been previously discovered 
by Ingraham, of which he sent an ac- 
count to France, claiming the discovery. 
Ingraham's claim admitted by Fleu- 
rieu, the editor of Marchand's Journal; 
Journal of Marchand's voyage, edited 
by Fleurieu; general character of the 
work, 223. See Fleurieu. 

Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan friar, pre- 
tends to have discovered a rich and 
populous country, called Cibola, north- 
west of Mexico, 59. 

Marquesas Islands, discovered by Menda- 
na, 95. North Marquesas or Washing- 
ton Islands, discovered by Ingraham, 
226. These islands occupied by the 
French, 374. 

Martinez, Estevan, pilot to Perez, in the 
Santiago; pretends to have rediscovered 
the Strait of Fuca, 116. Commands 
in a voyage of observation to the coasts 
occupied by the Russians, 185. Or- 
dered by the viceroy of Mexico to oc- 
cupy Nootka Sound, 187. Arrives at 
Nootka, 191. Seizes the Iphigenia, 

62 



but afterwards releases her, 192. Seizes 
the North-West America, 194. Seizes 
the Argonaut, and imprisons her cap- 
tain, 195. Seizes the Princess Royal, 
198, Reflections oi\ these acts, 197. 
Returns to Mexico, 198. 

Mauielle, Antonio, pilot, under Bodega, 
in his voyages along the north-west 
coasts, 117 — 125. His Journal of the 
first of these voyages, translated and 
printed at London, 117. Importance 
of this work, 123. His Journal of the 
other voyage, 125. 

Meares, John, his first voyage to the 
north-west coast, 166. His second voy- 
age, under tjie Portuguese flag, with 
the Felice and Iphigenia, 172. In- 
structed to take any vessels which 
may attempt to molest him, but not in- 
structed to form any establishment or 
purchase lands, 173. Reasons for his 
sailing under the Portuguese flag, 174. 
Arrives in the telice at Nootka, where 
he obtains from Maquinna the use of a 
piece of ground, afterwards claimed by 
him as purchased, 174. Receives from 
Berkeley an account of the rediscovery 
of the Strait of Fuca, by the latter, 171. 
Yet claims the merit of the rediscovery 
himself, 175. Seeks in vain for the 
great River San Roque, (the Columbia,) 
as laid down on Spanish charts, 176. 
Declares that no such river exists, 177. 
Yet the British government claims the 
discovery of the Columbia for him, 178, 
440. His account of the arrival of the 
sloop Washington at Nootka, 181. Re- 
turns to China, 180. Sent to London, 
to complain of the seizure of the vessels 
at Nootka, by the Spaniards, 202. His 
memorial to the British government, 
203. Its numerous falsehoods and in- 
consistencies, 172, 175, 178, 193, 211. 

Mendocino, Cape, 19. Discovered, 65. 

Mendoza, Antonio de, sent as viceroy to 
supersede Cortes in the government of 
Mexico, 56. Attempts to discovernew 
countries in America, 57. 

Mendoza, Diego Hurtado, commands the 
ships sent by Cortes to explore the Pa- 
cific coasts of America, 53. 

Metcalf, voyage c", fires on the natives 
at Mo wee, 224. Young Metcalf and 
his crew murdered by the natives of 
Owyhee, 225. 

Moncachtabi;, an Indian, his account of a 
great river,tiowing from the central parts 
of North America to the Pacific, 145. 

Monroe, James, secretary of state of the 
United States, declares to the British 
minister the intention of his govern- 
ment to secure the possession of the 
mouth of the Columbia, agreeably to 
the treaty of Ghent, 307. President 
of the United States; his message, de- 



490 



GENERAL INDEX. 



daring the American continents not 
subject to colonization by European 
nations, 335. 

Monterey discovered by Cabrillo, and so 
named by Vizcaino, 92. Colony es- 
tablished there by the Spaniards, 109. 
Taken by a Buenos Ayrean privateer, 
365. Taken by an American squad- 
ron, under Captain Jones, 367. 

Morehead, James T., speech in the Sen- 
ate of the United States on the bill 
for the occupation of Oregon, 381. 



N. 



Navarrete, Martin F. de, chief of the Hy- 
drographical Department at Madrid ; his 
labors with regard to the history of ear- 
ly voyages of discovery in America, 84. 

Nootka Sound discovered by the Span- 
iards under Perez, and called Port San 
Lorenzo, 113. Cook enters it with 
his ships, and calls it King George's 
Sound, 153. The principal rendezvous 
of the fur trader for some time, 167. 
Proceedings of Meares at Nootka, 174. 
The Spaniards determine to occupy it, 
187. Proceedings of the Spaniards 
under Martinez, 191. Claims of the 
British to the possession of the country 
examined, 242, 256. The Spaniards 
abandon it, 257. Capture of the ship 
Boston by the natives, and murder of 
her crew, 268. 

Nootka treaty, or convention of 1790, 
between Great Britain and Spain, 477. 
Discussions which led to it, 202 — 209. 
(See Meares.) Review of its stipula- 
tions, 213, 258. Expired in 1796, 258, 
318. Not to be regarded as a definitive 
settlement of principles, 340. Its con- 
tinual subsistence asserted by Great 
Britain, 349. 

North- West Fur Trading Company of 
Montreal founded; its system, 261. 
First posts established by it west of the 
Rocky Mountains, 291. Purchases the 
establishments of the Pacific Company, 
304. Disputes with the Hudson's Bay 
Company, 323. Union of the two com- 
panies, 325. 



o. 



Oregon, river, so called by Carver, sup- 
posed to flow from the central parts of 
North America to the Pacific, 142. (See 
Carver.) Name applied to the country 
drained by the Columbia, 359. De- 
scription of Oregon, 21. 

Ossinobia, name given by Lord Selkirk 
to the country purchased by him on 
the Red River, 324. 



Owyhee, or Hawaii, the largest of the 
Sandwich Islands, discovered by Cook, 
157. 



P. 



Perez, Juan, voyage from Mexico along 
the north-west coast to the 54th degree 
of latitude, 114. Discovers Nootka 
Sound, called by him Port San Loren- 
zo, 116, 153. 

Perouse, Francois G. de la, voyage along 
a part of the north-west coast, 163. 

Phelps, Samuel S., his speech in the 
Senate of the United States on the bill 
for the occupation of Oregon, 381. 

Philippine Islands conquered by the 
Spaniards, 67. 

Poletica, Chevalier de, Russian minister 
in the United States; correspondence 
with the American government respect- 
ing the ukase of 1821, 332. 

Promuschleniks, general name for the 
Russians employed in the service of the 
Russian American Trading Company, 
270. 

a. 

Quadra and Vancouver's Island, 29, 240. 

Quadra. See Bodega. 

Queen Charlotte's or Washington's Is- 
land, discovered by Perez, 115. Not 
seen by Cook, 153, 170. Seen by La 
Perouse, 164 ; and by Dixon, who gave 
it its present name, 164. Its west coast 
first explored by Gray, who names it 
Washington's Island, 199. Described, 
29, 

Queen Charlotte's Sound, name first given 
to the northern entrance of the Strait 
of Fuca, 240. 

R. 

Rives, William C, his speech in the Sen- 
ate of the United States on the bill for 
the occupation of Oregon, 384. 

Rocky Mountains described, 5. First 
called the Shining Mountains, or Moun- 
tains of Bright Stones, 143, 262. 

Rush, Richard, minister plenipotentiary 
of the United States at London ; discus- 
sion with Lord Castlereagh respecting 
the restoration of Astoria, 308. His 
first negotiation respecting the claims 
of the United States, 314. Concludes 
a convention on the subject in 1818, 
315. His second negotiation on the 
subject, 336. Talent and industry dis- 
played by him, 340. 

Russia, government proposes an arrange- 
ment with the United States respecting 
the trade of American vessels in the 
North Pacific, 275. Forbids foreign 



GENERAL INDEX. 



491 



vessels from trading in the North Pa- 
cific, 332. (See Ukase.) Convention 
with the United States, 342. Treaty 
with Great Britain, 343. Convention 
with the United States virtually abro- 
gated by that treaty, 343. Refuses to 
renew the fourth article of the conven- 
tion with the United States, 362. 

Russian American Company established 
by charter, 269. Its territories, 36. 
Its system, 270. Abuses in the admin- 
istration of its possessions, 271. Many 
abuses removed, 274. Renewal of its 
charter ; great improvement in its sys- 
tem, 364. Leases a part of its terri- 
tories to the Hudson's Bay Company, 
364. 

Russians conquer Northern Asia, 127. 
Their discoveries in the North Pacific, 
131, et seq. 



s. 



San Diego, 17. Discovered by Vizcaino, 
92. The first Spanish colony on the west 
coast of California planted there, 109. 

San Francisco Bay, 17. The northern- 
most spot on the west coast of America 
occupied by the Spaniards previous to 
May, 1789, 248. 

San Lucas, Cape, the southern extremity 
of California, 15. 

San Roque, river so called by the Span- 
iards, the same now called the Colum- 
bia, discovered, 120, 430. 

Sandwich Islands described, 39. Dis- 
covered by Cook, 157. Frequented by 
the Fur Traders, 1G8. Capture of the 
schooner Fair American by the na- 
tives, 225. Pretended cession of Owy- 
hee to Great Britain by Tamahamaha, 
251. Tamahamaha sovereign of the 
whole group, 268. Death of Tama- 
hamaha, 329. Christianity introduced 
into the islands, 330. Proceedings of 
the American missionaries ; language 
of the islands, 330. E.xpulsion of the 
Catholic missionaries, and their rein- 
statement, 371. The British occupy the 
islands temporarily, 373. Diminution 
of the native population, 374. See 
Cook, Tamahamaha, Metcalf, Vancou- 
ver, Ingraham. 

Santa Barbara Islands, 17. Discovered 
by Cabrillo, 64. 

Schelikof, Gregory, establishes Russian 
colonies on the coasts and islands of 
America, 161. The founder of the 
Russian American Company, 269. 

Sevier, Ambrose, speech in the Senate of 
the United States on the bill for the 
occupation of Oregon, 382. 
Sitka, or New Archangel, capital of Rus- 
sian America, 37. Founded by Ba- 
ranof, 270. 



Snake River. See Lewis River. 

South Pass in the Rocky Mountains, 6. 

Discovered by Ashley, 357. 
Sutil and Mexicana, voyage of, 239, 241. 

See Galiano and Valdes. 



Tamahamaha, a chief of note in Owyhee, 
168. King of Owyhee, 249. Pretend- 
ed cession of the sovereignty of his 
island to the British, 251. Acquires the 
dominion over all the islands, 268. His 
acuteness in trade, 269, 296. His death 
and character, 329. 

Tchirikof, Alexei, voyages of, 129, 130, 
133. See Bering. 

Treaty of partition between Spain and 
Portugal in 1494, 46. Of Saragossa, 
between the same powers, in 1529, 49. 
The American treaty between Spain 
and England, in 1670, 102. Treaty of 
Utrecht, between Great Britain and 
France, in 1713, 140. No line of bound- 
ary between the possessions of those 
powers settled by that treaty, 140, 281, 
436. Family Compact, in 1762, be- 
tween France and Spain, 103. Dis- 
solved, 207. Treaty of Versailles, be- 
tween England, France, Spain, and 
Portugal, in 1763, 102, 278. Nootka 
treaty, of 1790, between Great Britain 
and Spain, 209, 258, 318, 476. Treaty 
of ISOO, by which Spain ceded Louis- 
iana to France, 276, 279. Treaty of 
1803, by which France ceded Louis- 
iana to the United States, 276, 279. 
Treaty of Ghent, in 1814, between the 
United States and Great Britain, 306.-- 
Florida treaty between the United 
States and Spain, in 1819, 31G, 478. 
Treaty between Great Britain and Rus- 
sia, in 1825, 342, 479. Treaty between 
the United Slates and Great Britain, 
settling boundaries east of the Lake of 
the Woods, 377. See Conventions. 

Tyler, John, president of the United 
States ; message respecting the Sand- 
wich Islands, 372. Message respecting 
Oregon, 378. 

u. 

Ukase of the Russian government, pro- 
hibiting vessels of other nations from 
frequenting the North Pacific coasts, 
322. Correspondence respecting it, be- 
tween the secretary of state of the 
United States and the Russian plenipo- 
tentiary, at Washington, 333. Protest of 
the British government against it, 335. 

Ulloa, Francisco, voyage through the 
Gulf of California and along the west 
coast, 58. 



492 



GENERAL INDEX. 



UUoa, Antonio, secret information afford- 
ed by him to the Spanish government, 
respecting the state of the Spanish 
provinces in South America, in 1740, 
105. 

Unalashka Island, 38. Visited by Cook, 
155, who there first meets with Rus- 
sians, 156. 

United States, first voyages of their citi- 
zens to the Pacific and to China, 179. 
First voyages to the north-west coast 
of America, 180. Their citizens alone 
can occupy Oregon, 403. 

Urdaiieta, Andres de, discovers the mode 
of crossing the Pacific from west to 
east, 67. Supposed to have discovered 
a northern passage between the Atlan- 
tic and Pacific, 78. 

Utah Salt Lake, 20. 



V. 

Vancouver, George, sails from England 
on an exploring voyage to the Pacific, 
and as commissioner on the part of 
Great Britain to receive the lands and 
buildings to be restored by Spain, 
agreeably to the Nootka convention, 
217. Reaches the north-west coast 
of America, 232. Declares that no 
river or harbor of consequence is to be 
found between the 40th and the 4Sth 
degree of latitude, 233. Meets Gray, 
and receives from him an account of 
the discovery of a great river, 232, 
which he disbelieves, 233. Enters the 
Strait of Fuca; explores Admiralty In- 
let, and takes possession of the whole 
surrounding territory, 238. Remarks 
on this act; meets Galiano and Val- 
des, and continues the survey of the 
strait, 239. Passes through the strait, 
and arrives at Nootka, 240. Claims 
the discovery of the Washington or 
North Marquesas Islands for Hergest, 
though he knew them to have been 
first seen by the Americans, 242. Ne- 
gotiations with the Spanish commis- 
sioner Quadra, 242. Claims the whole 
territory around Nootka for Great Brit- 
ain, 243. His unfair synopsis of the 
letter of Gray and Ingraham, 244, 417, 
Receives accounts and charts of Gray's 



discoveries from Quadra; sends Brough- 
ton to examine Columbia River, 247. 
At the Sandwich Islands, executes per- 
sons falsely charged- with the murder 
of his officers, 249. Examines a large 
portion of the north-west coasts, and 
returns to the Sandwich Islands, 250. 
Pretended cession of Owyhee to him 
for his sovereign, 251. Circumstances 
connected with that affair, 252. Re- 
turns to the north-west coast, of which 
he completes the survey, 254. Names 
given by him to places, 255. Returns 
to England ; his death ; great value 
of his journal; his hatred of Ameri- 
cans, and constant injustice towards 
them, 256. 
Vizcaino, Sebastian, exploring voyage 
along the north-west coast, 91. De- 
sires to found colonies on those coasts, 
94. Death, 95. 



w. 

Washington's or Queen Charlotte's Is- 
land, east coast first explored by Gray, 
199. 

Washington or North Marquesas Islands, 
discovered by Ingraham, 226. Discov- 
ery claimed by Marchand, who, how- 
ever, admits the priority of Ingraham's 
claim, 228. Discovery claimed by Van- 
couver for Hergest, 242. Occupied by 
the French, 374. 

Webster, Daniel, secretary of state of the 
United States, concludes a treaty with 
Lord Ashburton, settling the boundaries 
east of the Lake of tire Woods, 378. 

Whidbey surveys Bulfinch's Harbor, 246. 

Wiccanish, king of Nittinat, 167. 

Wilkes, Charles, his voyage of explora- 
tion in the Pacific, 376: — - 3*1 r 

Willamet, river and valley, 26. First 
settlements of citizens of the United 
States there, 361. 

Woodbury, Levi, speech in the Senate 
of the United States on the bill for the 
occupation of Oregon, 381. 

Wyeth, Nathaniel, endeavors to establish 
trading posts on the Columbia, 359. 
Great value of his accounts of Oregon, 
360. 





















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